Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure: Information for Presenters

If you are a presenter in a course offered by an ASHA Approved CE Provider, the following elements of the ASHA Continuing Education Board's Requirement 3 [PDF] (transparency in course planning and delivery) pertain to you.

The following information about the ASHA Continuing Education Board’s Requirement 3 applies to all presenters of courses offered by an ASHA CE Provider:  

• Course content and presentation must focus on the science and/or contemporary practice of audiology, speech-language pathology, and speech, language, and hearing sciences, not on the sale or promotion of products or services. 
• Presenters should not attempt to persuade learners to favor, use, promote, or purchase a particular product, equipment, device, or service. 
• If a course is focused on teaching the theoretical aspects of a product or service and/or the details of a product's operation, presenters cannot sell or promote that product or service during the course. Likewise, if you use products, equipment, or devices in conducting a course, you cannot engage in marketing, promoting, or selling during the course or in the space/place where the course is held. 
• If you teach a course focused on one product or service, the Provider is required to disclose to learners prior to the course that there will be limited to no information provided about similar products or services. The Provider may ask you to include this in your disclosure to learners. 
• All presenters must disclose, during course planning, relevant financial and nonfinancial relationships or lack thereof to the Provider and to learners at the start of the course. Presenters need only disclose those relationships that are relevant and may influence course content and delivery.  

• • Financial relationships may include receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, gift, speaking fee, consulting fee, honorarium, ownership interest, or other financial benefit.  Financial relationships can also include “contracted research” in which the institution receives the grant, manages the funds, and the individual is the principal or named investigator on the grant. 
  • Non-financial relationships may include personal or professional roles, experiences, and background.  
  • The course provider will review the submitted disclosures and follow up if they have questions about your disclosure. 
  • Provider will create and publish disclosure statements.  
  • You’ll want to let the Provider know if there are changes to your published disclosures that occur before your presentation.