The key areas of the guidelines that are problematical for commercial interests are as follows:

STANDARD 1: INDEPENDENCE
1.1 A CME provider must ensure that the following decisions were made free of the control of a commercial interest. (See www.accme.org for a definition of a ‘commercial interest’ and some exemptions.)
(a) Identification of CME needs;
(b) Determination of educational objectives;
(c) Selection and presentation of content;
(d) Selection of all persons and organizations that will be in a position to control the content of the CME;
(e) Selection of educational methods;
(f) Evaluation of the activity.

1.2 A commercial interest cannot take the role of non-accredited partner in a joint sponsorship relationship.

So a device or pharmaceutical manufacturer cannot determine the educational objectives for the course. They cannot have any input into the content of the course. They cannot host the course on a website that they own.  They can’t be a partner in the joint sponsorship of the CME credits.

They can be the grantor of “an unrestricted educational grant” for the development of the course. On the website hosting the course, The sponsor can have an attribution of their sponsorship and even a logo. The attribution can be a hyperlink tot he sponsor’s commercial website, with an intermediate screen warning the viewer that they are leaving the CME site.