COURSE CONTENT POLICY

MEDICAL AFFAIRS PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY (MAPS)

Course Content Policy

Policy #: L&D – 2022 – CC

Version: 1

Origin date of approval by the LDC: May 18, 2022

Scheduled review date: May 12, 2022

Volunteer Group Responsible: Learning & Development Committee

Staff Member Responsible: Director of Learning and Development

Introduction: The Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) is committed to ensuring that accredited courses are applicable to learners and the course content is reviewed for quality, currency, effectiveness, and applicability. The purpose of this policy is to establish continuing education offerings of the highest quality to help the learner in his/her Medical Affairs development.

Purpose: The purpose of this policy is to make certain that MAPS’ continuing education course offerings are of the highest quality, are presented with current and applicable material, and training is effective to help the learner in his/her Medical Affairs’ professional development. 

Policy: To ensure quality curriculum development and conformity to requirements for currency, effectiveness and applicability are met, MAPS aligns and validates the content of our IACET aligned learning activities with the following standards. Specifically,

MAPS designs, develops, and evaluates each IACET aligned course and learning materials in a thorough instructional design planning process as evidenced by a completed and approved CE Planning, Course Content and Sequencing, and Learning Environment and Accessibility forms. This process, overseen by a CE/T Planner and approved by the Director of Learning and Development, ensures sound instructional design is applied based on adult learning theory principles; and content is targeted for a specified audience based on a viable needs analysis.
All course content recommendations involving clinical medicine, business acumen, leadership, data, and other subject matter related to medical affairs protocol and practices implemented must be evidence-based with adequate support and justifications supplied.
Course content must be presented without industry bias or proprietary information and reflect the industry overall.
All scientific research referred to, reported, or used in an accredited course must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis.
Scientific research and literature used as the major support references in a course, and/or to justify the needs analysis and gap assessment, must be current (within a three-year period leading up to the course/training). MAPS courses are not eligible for provision of credits if they present activities that promote recommendations, treatment, or manners of practicing medical affairs that are known to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits or are known to be ineffective in the treatment of patients.
MAPS courses are not eligible for accreditation or provision of credits if they present activities that promote recommendations, treatment, or manners of practicing medical affairs that are known to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits or known to be ineffective in the treatment of patients. Courses will not advocate for unscientific modalities of diagnosis, technology, data collection or therapies.
Courses must include formative and summative assessments to ensure learners are attaining the intended outcomes.
Through a standardized evaluation form, each accredited course is reviewed immediately following the event to determine the achievement of intended learning outcomes. Subsequently, a course’s content will be modified and/or delivery methods will be adjusted if preliminary evaluations show learner outcomes are not being accomplished (ratings of 2.99 or lower on a 5-point Likert scale).

Responsibilities:  

Staff, volunteer members, and content developers/presenters will follow these procedures. 
The Learning & Development Director and Committee will: 
Actively promote this policy and regularly review the leadership and commitment given to ensuring that courses are meeting the stated criteria of the policy.
Monitor performance by way of periodic management reports and assurances.  
Review the course evaluation data for learning events to ensure the minimum criteria is met.
The CEO will:  
Ensure that the organization’s practices and processes incorporate precautions against infractions of policy.  
Where appropriate, delegate responsibility for compliance to officers with responsibility for particular sections.  
Oversee the performance of subordinate officers in these matters.  
Review and report to the Board, as appropriate, on the effectiveness of the management systems established to ensure compliance with the policy.  
Analyze material breaches and identified compliance system weaknesses for systematic trends and ensure that any adverse trends are addressed.  
Promote a culture of effective policy compliance across the organization.  
All staff and volunteers at all levels will:  
Be made aware of and agree to adherence of the organization’s policy.  
Where appropriate, suggest ways in which practices, systems and procedures could be improved to reduce the likelihood of violation of the content policy occurring.

Processes:   

The CEO and Director of Learning and Development will initially review the organization’s procedures in all areas to ensure that these are in accordance with the principles expressed in this policy and will report to the Board on this matter.  

The CEO will review any changes to the organization’s procedures in all areas to ensure that these are in accordance with the principles expressed in this policy.  

Educational content developers/planners and instructors are made aware of the policy through their Content Participation Agreement, and through a discussion of this and all relevant policies during the kickoff call. Everyone involved in the development of course content and all MAPS staff are required to accept compliance with the policy via the Content Participant Agreement. 

Non-compliance: Any notice of non-compliance with the policy will be immediately reviewed by the CE/T Planner and Director of Learning and Development. If a content developer/presenter is deemed to not be following the policy regarding the development, presentation, or learning of a MAPS continuing education offering, s/he will be advised of the infraction, and will be given one opportunity to immediately correct the infraction. If the infraction is not corrected forthwith or if a second violation occurs, the individual will be removed from the program or participating in future programs.

COURSE CONTENT POLICY

Course Content Policy

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