Disclosure Information 

As a sponsor of continuing medical education accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), The Society of Thoracic Surgeons requires that any individual who is in a position to control the content of an educational activity must disclose all financial relationships with any ineligible companies. This is to ensure that that all decisions related to the planning, faculty selection, delivery, and evaluation of accredited education are made without any influence or involvement from the owners and employees of an ineligible company. The ACCME defines ineligible companies as those whose “primary business is producing, marketing, selling, reselling, or distributing health care products used by or on patients.” The question of whether a disclosed conflict situation could represent undue influence on the educational activity by an ineligible company or whether the disclosed information is sufficient to consider an abstract, presentation, or other educational enduring material to represent potentially biased information must be mitigated prior to an individual’s involvement in STS educational programming. 
 
Disclosure information is provided for each presenter at the beginning of the session and/or presentation.  If applicable, the absence of relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies will also be disclosed to learners. To review the complete STS Education Disclosure Policy, go to sts.org/about-sts/policies/education-disclosure-policy.