Become a fan on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Subscribe to RSS Feed
World of Psychology

The spigot of free gifts, travel and other give aways to doctors, professors and students in the nation’s 129 medical schools is about to be closed. Gosh, I don’t know how they’ll manage…

The New York Times brings us the story today:

Drug and medical device companies should be banned from offering free food, gifts, travel and ghost-writing services to doctors, staff members and students in all 129 of the nation’s medical colleges, an influential college association has concluded.

The proposed ban is the result of a two-year effort by the group, the Association of American Medical Colleges, to create a model policy governing interactions between the schools and industry. While schools can ignore the association’s advice, most follow its recommendations.

What’s all the hubbub about anyway? Well, big dollars = big influence:

Drug companies spend billions wooing doctors — more than they spend on research or consumer advertising. Medical schools, packed with prominent professors and impressionable trainees, are particularly attractive marketing targets.

So companies have for decades provided faculty and students free food and gifts, offered lucrative consulting arrangements to top-notch teachers and even ghost-wrote research papers for busy professors.

In addition to the gift, food and travel bans, the report recommended that medical schools should “strongly discourage participation by their faculty in industry-sponsored speakers’ bureaus,” in which doctors are paid to promote drug and device benefits.

The unintentionally funniest part from the article, however, is this quote from Ken Johnson from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America industry group:

“Providing physicians — and medical students — with timely, accurate information about the medicines they prescribe clearly benefits patients and advances healthcare throughout the United States,” Mr. Johnson said.

Yes, because as we all know, doctors and students could only possibly get unbiased information about medicines from the manufacturers themselves. Not from anything completely objective or anything like, oh I don’t know, perhaps a medical journal or such?!

Honestly, do they think doctors’ only way of obtaining useful information about medications is through them?

Read the full article: Group Urges Ban on Medical Giveaways


1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment to
“Medical Giveaways to Be Banned in Medical Schools”

Avoid all biased information from the very beginning, and discriminate between that and what is truly objective. Your patients will thank you in time.

Join the Conversation! Post a Comment:


(Required, will be published)

(Required, but will not be published)

(Optional)


    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 28 Apr 2008

 


Recent Comments
  • ubi: Ok, a quick google for this Dr. Roberta Lee points us to the website http://www.healthandhealingny. org an...
  • John M Grohol PsyD: While I see Dr. Sam’s point, I think it’s not a luxury a student therapist has (to...
  • Ollie: NOT, of course you can’t see yourself in these ways when you’re feeling depressed. That’s...
  • Paul W. Anderson, Ph.D.: More so than not, couples I have worked with where one decides to end the relationship, that...
  • thementalcoach: Good points. I’ve discovered, working with many people who want to stop smoking, that...
Article Tools
Bookmark
Print
Email Friend


Stumble It!


Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter


Users Online: 1576
Join Us Now!


Find a Therapist


 







Follow us on Twitter!

Find us on Facebook!