Ban Urged on Gifts at Medical Schools

Published 2 May 8 1:37 PM | lfields

 

The Association of American Medical Colleges has proposed new rules that would prohibit pharmaceutical and device manufacturers from offering gifts, products, and other common relationships and services to all U.S. medical schools. Where’s the line between acceptance of contributions/resources that provide much-needed assistance to strapped medical school budgets, and undue -- though perhaps subtle -- influence on medical decision-making?

Attached below is the Report of the AAMC Task Force on Industry Funding of Medical Education to the AAMC Executive Council.   

 

View the report here...

 

 

Comments

# Monica Fernandez Bruno said on May 3, 2008 4:12 PM:

I think that this important contribution to medical schools should not be refused. Maybe medical schools should give more ethical issues to their students, in order to avoid undue situations in medical decision making. It will always depend on doctors what they decide to do with thier patients, no matter what the influences are.

# Saddichha Sahoo said on May 4, 2008 9:05 AM:

Clear guidelines need to be evolved in order to decide what should be on offer and what should not in medical schools. For example, many psychiatric textbooks are expensive and out of reach of the common medical student. If these are provided by the industry, there is no harm and in fact should be encouraged. On the other hand, having holidays, cruises and gifts, obligate the receiver to help the industry and should be banned.

# Horner, M said on May 4, 2008 1:23 PM:

It seems odd that the very people that indulged in all the pharmaceutical sponsorship are now telling the younger physicians they cannot partake in the educational benefits such as sponsored lectures, travel grants and textbooks. Meanwhile, I see major University names everywhere at the pharma-funded symposiums here at APA. Instead of being extreme and banning everything, why not specify what is exceptable (i.e., strict regulation on the implimentation of educational sponsorship), thus allowing struggling medical students to still benefit from the sponsorship, but without an extreme commerical slant.

# Flavio Casoy said on May 4, 2008 2:02 PM:

There is no disputing the evidence that industry gifts influence prescibing habits of physicians.  In fact, if there was any evidence that these did not, then the industry would not spend the millions of dollars that it does to marked drugs to docs.  The effect of this influence is the prescribing of medications that are more expensive and not necessarily better for the patient when compared to an existing generic (how many true head to head trials have you read recently?).  The ability to influence physicians in training potentially creates a life-long prescriber.  We want our prescribing habits to be dictated by the best evidence available, not well crafted marketing messages.  The goal should not only be to biased, profit-driven influence from physicians-in-training, but to fully cleanse the profession from commercial influence that is not evidence based and is not patient centered.  Fundamentally, our education is not for sale.  I write these comments as a 4th medical student.    

# Shelley Trazkovich said on July 11, 2008 1:46 PM:

Gifts that promote education and assist in the practice of medicine, and medication samples, are one of the few things that the pharmaceutical industry does with its massive profits that is ok and helpful and should be allowed. I have no problem with limiting excessive gifts, even though I had a good time going to a baseball game in a skybox, and I enjoyed the only football game that i ever went to. Ah, the good old days.I can't believe the financial value of some gifts that I heard about. Shame on you for accepting personal goods worth over 100 dollars with no medical value, or being flown out to a conference and being put up in a luxurious hotel for no good reason.

I think that gifts should go to patients as well, but given out by the doctor.

Public excess is really bad too. I remember going to a symphony at a local park, and there was a dinner for some physicians going on in the building that we had to pass through to get into the park area. It looked excessive and was obviously a drug dinner as there was a big sign.

I especially enjoyed having pens with the name of medications that I was using on them.

As far as being influenced to prescribe a particular medication: come on now, we are big boys and girls. We should have been educated about how to judge the quality of a study and its validity. We should have also been educated about some ethics. Those are standard subjects in medical school.

# LewHortillosaMD said on August 16, 2008 8:12 PM:

Baby and bath water thrown out together?