HFSA Meeting Endorsement Guidelines

For educational programs to be considered for HFSA endorsement, CME activities must have the following:

1. A substantial focus on heart failure
2. Sponsorship by an ACCME-accredited provider for programs located in the United States. For international events, program content must be in compliance with local regulatory standards for continuing education credits, OR should meet ACCME standards
3. A chair/co-chair (preferred) or member of the planning committee who is an HFSA member
4. An endorsement fee of $500 (payment information is required at initial submission)

Applications generally come from academic or healthcare institutions.  However, applications from for-profit or non-profit companies will be considered. HFSA endorses both domestic and international programs. For programs that take place
outside of the United States, program content must be in compliance with local regulatory standards for continuing education credits. The name of the local regulatory standards and a link to their policies should be included in the application.

The HFSA is committed to fostering programs that reflect its core values – of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. HFSA supports and promotes diversity of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, discipline, career-stage and geography, among other domains across all areas of the association. Ideal HFSA Endorsed Courses will share the same principles. 

HFSA reserves the right to refuse or reject endorsement requests that it deems to be inconsistent with its mission or that conflicts in some other way with its interests.  HFSA will not consider endorsement of a program with dates that directly compete with scheduled HFSA developed and supported programs. Please refer to the HFSA website https://hfsa.org/events for a listing of current programs.

Questions?

For additional information about the endorsement guidelines or process, please contact Anna Leong at aleong@hfsa.org. 

The following materials must be submitted for consideration:

1. Completed HFSA Endorsement Application
2. Letter or email documenting requirements 1-3 above have been met
3. Draft program including proposed faculty
4. Needs assessment and learning objectives
5. Draft evaluation form (or a copy of previous year’s form)
6. Endorsement fee

Incomplete applications will not be reviewed for endorsement. Applications that do not submit payment may have their endorsement revoked.

Endorsement requests should be submitted to Anna Leong at aleong@hfsa.org. Completed requests are reviewed by the HFSA Education Committee. 

Endorsed programs agree to provide HFSA the following:

• HFSA is provided one complimentary registration to event.
• HFSA is provided a complimentary table or equivalent (ex. exhibitor table/booth, virtual exhibitor opportunity) to share membership and educational materials at event. If HFSA is unable to attend, hosting organization will be asked to set materials.
• HFSA is recognized during the welcome remarks by a program co-chair (member of the HFSA). The program chair is asked to present the provided HFSA overview slide deck.
• HFSA is recognized in program's walk-in slides using the HFSA Endorsement walk-in slide.
• Post Follow-up Materials (see Endorsement Post-Program Follow-up Section)

Endorsed programs are required to submit the following materials to HFSA after the activity. If these materials are not submitted to HFSA, future endorsement of the program will not be made.

• Sample announcement and handout, showing speaker disclosure information
• Evaluation summary
• Number of attendees, categorized by physicians vs non-physicians
• Reporting on HFSA complimentary table traffic (ex. # of visitors to booth/table, # of page views) – For Virtual Events
• Reporting on Meeting and Attendee Engagement (ex. # of attendees per session) – For Virtual Events
• HFSA is provided two (2) distributions of HFSA membership and educational information to a post conference attended list by various means, in a manner pre-determined by HFSA staff and a representative from the hosting organization.*

*Means include: sharing the post-conference attendee list directly with HFSA for emails sent by HFSA email marketing system**; sending emails on behalf of HFSA to the post-conference attendee list through the hosting organization’s email marketing system+; providing attendee addresses directly to HFSA for direct mailing of collateral** or working with a mail house.  

**Organization to send list within 60 days of program. +Organization must provide metrics of email sends within 15 days from email distribution.

Endorsed programs will receive the following benefits from HFSA:

1. HFSA logo for use in publications, program brochure, program website and promotional materials. The logo should appear with the phrase “Endorsed by” and should be comparable in size to the logos of other endorsing organizations. 
   
   Program materials should include the following statement (or comparable statement):
   
   Officially endorsed by the Heart Failure Society of America. The opinions presented in this educational activity do not necessarily reflect the opinions or recommendations of the HFSA.
    
2. HFSA Endorsement slide for walk-in slides.
3. Endorsed program will be listed on the events section of the HFSA website at www.hfsa.org/events.
4. Endorsed program details will be posted to HFSA’s social media accounts (Twitter and Facebook).

Endorsed Course program organizers may purchase an add-on eblast to be sent to all HFSA professional members to aid in the marketing and promotion of the endorsed program. These eblasts are sent by HFSA staff through their existing email marketing platform and must adhere to specific guidelines. For more information about the purchase of an add-on eblast, click below or contact info@hfsa.org.

The fee for HFSA endorsement is $500 per program. Complete the credit card payment section on the application form, or call the HFSA office to relay payment information over the phone. The endorsement fee will be charged upon receipt of application and processing.