Today we are going to talk about the 2010 ACCME Annual Report Data. There are fewer accredited providers producing fewer activities now but those activities are being delivered to many more physician attendees as well as non-physician attendees. We are going to talk about data sets in two areas today. First, we are going to talk about the 2009/2010 difference in data, and then we are going to talk about five year data trends between 2006 and 2010.
Breaking Down the Data
We had a 2% decline between 2009 and 2010, which is not that big of a deal because there were only 13 fewer accredited providers in 2010 versus 2009. However, now we have fewer than 700 accredited providers. There was a 2.7% increase in total CME income, but that really doesn’t say very much until you start looking at where that increase came from. There was a 3% decline in the amount of industry grant funding, or what a lot of people call commercial support, between 2009 and 2010. Now that figure contrasts with a much bigger decline between 2008 and 2009 of 17.7%. So, where does the big increase of overall CME income come from? Well, most of that came from an 8.5% increase in what’s called other income.
Other Income
Other income includes budget allocations from companies such as hospital departments, universities, medical education companies, as well as participant registration fees and other increases in income. There was a 14% total decline in the number of CME activities, but interestingly there was a 6% increase in the number of physician participants at CME activities last year. There were fewer activities, but more physicians at those activities. The data also shows that the lowest average expense per physician attending CME activities was achieved by publishing and education companies, while the highest average expense per attendee of the top four accredited provider types was those events certified by professional societies.
Five Year Trend Data
Let’s look at the five year trend data, where there is some positive trending and a possible tip of the hat to the “medical home concept,” or what we all know as the health care team concept. First off, over the past five years total expenses for CME are down 3.6%, and at the same time the total number of physician participants are up 39%. However, the really interesting point is that the total number of non-physician participants at CME activities is up 72% over the last 5 years. A PDF of Global’s detailed analysis can be obtained by contacting us.
As always if you have any questions related to the 2010 ACCME annual report feel free to contact us