As a sponsor accredited by the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education, ASCRS•ASOA must ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all its individually or jointly sponsored activities.

All individuals participating in an ASCRS-sponsored CME activity must disclose any financial interest or relationship with the manufacturer(s) of any commercial product(s) and/or provider(s) of commercial services discussed in an educational presentation or lack thereof. Financial interest can include such things as grants or research support, employee, consultant, major stockholder, member of speakers bureau, financial relationships held by spouse, etc.

The intent of this disclosure is not to prevent participants with a significant financial or other relationship from presenting, but rather to provide the Program Committee with information so they can design and implement a balanced, independent, and scientific educational activity. The Financial Interest Index within the sponsored activity’s Final Program provides information to attendees so they can make their own judgment regarding the interest or relationship and the materials presented.

Potential participants in ASCRS-sponsored CME programs, including coauthors/coproducers/co-instructors and faculty, must provide a complete listing of ALL financial relationships relevant to ophthalmology—not just those related to a specific talk—in the financial interest disclosure database. Any relevant relationship that occurred within the previous 12 months should be reported. Those who have no financial interests to disclose should indicate “none” in the database. Disclosure information will be kept on file and used during the calendar year in which it was collected for all CME-bearing activities.

This system ensures our continued compliance with the ACCME’s guidelines and ensures we continue to provide exceptional quality continuing education; we also believe this system will streamline the process for you, thus improving your overall experience as a participant in our meetings. We thank you in advance for your assistance.

A complete listing of relationships to disclose and their corresponding codes is listed below. Please review the descriptions carefully before continuing.

Step 1: Click here to enter the financial interest disclosure database. Disclosure Deadline for the 2009 ASCRS/ASOA Symposium and Congress: October 2, 2008.

• If this is your first time using our system, click on "Create an Account" and complete all steps.
• If you are a returning user from 2007/2008, please update your account for 2009. Log in and click OK to update, and then click on “Modify Your Account.” Your previous year’s financial interest disclosure is located in Step 5.
• "Forgot Your Password?" Click the link on the left menu to retrieve your login information.
• It is IMPORTANT to use a valid e-mail address as all correspondence regarding your account and/or submission will be sent to this e-mail address. Note: When submitting, if you are entering coauthors/co-instructors/coproducers, you must confirm the e-mail they used when accessing the submission software.