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

Abstract Background Concerns 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. Methods Postactivity CME evaluation surveys were analyzed to quantitate reporting rates of bias, overall and by funding source. Results 5Of 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