CMSS Code for Interactions with Companies 

About the Code

The CMSS Code for Interactions with Companies guides ethical Specialty Society interactions with industry. CMSS members and for-profit entities rely on the Code to develop their own policies and procedures that minimize conflicts of interest and safeguard the independence of their programs, policies, and advocacy positions. 

Healthcare professionals and patients count on Societies to be authoritative, independent voices in the world of science and medicine. Public confidence in a Society’s objectivity is critical to carrying out its mission, and Societies and their members are committed to acting with integrity and transparency across all their initiatives and collaborations, including their interactions with Companies. The CMSS Code for Interactions with Companies exemplifies this commitment by reinforcing the core principles that sustain Societies’ independence. The Code serves as a framework to help ensure that a Society’s interactions with Companies will be focused on the benefits to patients and members and the improvement of care.

2025 Update – Now Available

In Fall 2024, CMSS assembled a multidisciplinary Code Task Force from across our membership to help update and revise the CMSS Code for Interactions with Companies, which was last updated in 2015. The Task Force has worked tirelessly over the past year to review all aspects of the Code, recommend updates, and evaluate and incorporate comments received from CMSS members and other stakeholders.

CMSS is pleased to share the result of this effort: a revised CMSS Code for Interactions with Companies that embodies Societies’ commitment to core principles of independence and transparency while facilitating ethical Society-Company interactions that further Societies’ critical missions. The CMSS Board of Directors has officially approved the revised CMSS Code.

Resource: 

CMSS Code for Interactions with Companies (2025)

Adopting, Signing, and Supporting the Code

Adoption of the Code is strictly voluntary for each CMSS Member Society. CMSS welcomes adoption of the Code by both member and non-member organizations that recognize its value and choose to integrate it into their organization’s policies and procedures regarding Society-Company interactions.

Because Societies vary in their activities and corporate structures, these policies and procedures may be tailored to meet individual organizational needs while maintaining the underlying tenets of the Code. Notably, Societies may choose to adopt policies that are more rigorous than the Code.

A list of member society signatories and other organizations that have adopted or supported the Code will be posted in the Spring of 2026.

Inquiries regarding the Code, as well as questions regarding the sign-on process, may be directed to Julia Peterson, CAE, CMSS Chief Operating Officer.