Most US Med Schools Have Mediocre Conflict Of Interest Policies

Over the past several years, medical schools have come under withering scrutiny for their relationships with drug and device makers. A new study, however, indicates that US medical schools are improving, but nearly two-thirds still lacked policies to limit financial ties in at least one area that was examined, including gifts, meals, samples, and payments for travel, consulting, and speaking. For instance, policies that were classified as moderate, permissive or non-existent remain the norm in 11 of 12 areas. Nearly a third of medical schools still have no policy prohibiting ghostwriting. And most either do not have a policy or a permissive policy for samples, industry-funded continuing medical education or fees for consulting, honoraria and speaking. The study was published in Academic Medicine (here is the abstract). “There has been a broad and rapid transformation in how academic medicine manages industry relationships since we looked at this in 2008, but much room for improvement remains,” says co-author David Rothman, who heads the Institute for Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University, in a statement. The goal was to determine how school policies may have changed since 2008, when a prior study was conducted. As we have reported previously, there has been heightened interest in the relationships between medical schools and industry over concerns that medical research, as well as student views and their future medical practices, may be unduly influenced by con...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs