White Guide and Orange Guide Formatting Project - Pfizer

Orange Guide – Chapter 3: Support of External Organizations
such activities is covered below in the section titled “Awards, Scholarships and Fellowships”.) By
requiring the review and approval of these requests by MEG, Pfizer seeks to minimize the risk that a
medical education grant could be approved, or perceived to have been approved, for an improper
purpose.
Commercial support of medical education grants has been under increasing scrutiny by Congress and
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG). In an effort to
be more transparent, Pfizer publicly reports grants and charitable contributions provided to medical,
scientific and patient organizations in the United States, on the Pfizer website.
Registration and Application Submission
All requests for U.S. medical education grants must be submitted by the external organization directly
to MEG via Pfizer’s online Grant Management System (GMS) at www.pfizermededgrants.com. All
submissions, required documentation and decisions are recorded and archived in GMS.
Organizations must first be evaluated for eligibility criteria such as accreditation (when applicable) in
order to register in GMS. Eligible organizations are those organizations with a duty of care and
educational mission including hospitals, academic medical centers, schools of nursing or pharmacy,
professional societies and associations, and other institutions specializing in specific healthcare-related
disciplines (e.g., public health, quality improvement). Once qualified for registration, eligible
organizations may submit a request for support of QI initiatives and independent accredited or
non-accredited professional educational programs and activities. Requests for accredited independent
professional education must originate from accredited organizations. Examples of accreditations
include ACCME, ACPE, ANCC, AOA, and the Joint Commission. Providers must be in compliance with
Pfizer standards as well as the guidelines of the OIG, ACCME and other relevant bodies, as applicable.
Pfizer does not support requests from individual physicians, private practice groups, or institutions that
appear to have significant conflicts of interest. For example, organizations where practicing healthcare
providers have a proprietary or ownership interest in the organization will not be eligible to apply for
medical education grants from Pfizer.
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