Low Rates of Reporting Commercial Bias by Physicians Following Online Continuing Medical Education Activities

BackgroundConcerns have been raised about bias in commercially supported continuing medical education (CME) activities, although the data are sparse about whether such bias exists, or if so, its extent.MethodsPostactivity CME evaluation surveys were analyzed to quantitate reporting rates of bias, overall and by funding source.Results5Of 1,621,647 physicians who participated in online CME activities, 1,064,642 (65.7%) completed the evaluation surveys and 5.9% reported no opinion. The affirmative rates of physician perception of bias were 0.63% overall, a weighted average of 0.84% for activities developed with and 0.48% for those developed without commercial support, a difference of 0.36% (P <.001, 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.39). Among the subgroup who strongly disagreed that there is no bias, the difference between commercial (0.17%) and noncommercial (0.11%) funding was 0.06% (P <.001, 95% confidence interval, 0.05-0.08, P <.05), smaller than the overall difference.ConclusionsThese data demonstrate that about 93% of physician participants affirmatively claim to perceive no commercial bias following online CME activities, over 99% if no opinion is included, overall and regardless of funding source.