Med schools asked to shun drug firm freebies

The Assn. of American Medical Colleges also wants schools to ban or limit drug industry programs such as speakers' bureaus.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. May 26, 2008.

Free lunches, pens or trips to resorts from drug companies should not be accepted. Ghostwriting of pharmaceutical research should be prohibited. And participation in industry-backed speakers' bureaus should be discouraged.

A report by the Assn. of American Medical Colleges calls for these and other restrictions to limit drug and medical device companies' interactions at the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals. The report's recommendations seek to free the educational environment of industry marketing activities, put buffers in place when industry funding is accepted, and distance physicians and trainees from sales representatives' influence, medical leaders said.

AAMC Chief Scientific Officer David Korn, MD, said the recommendations were prompted by concerns that industry funding is increasingly eroding the objectivity and integrity of medical education.

"Those [industry] influences may not be in the best interest of individual patients and may not be in accord with the best evidence available about particular illnesses," he said.

The AAMC's governing board is expected to adopt the report's findings next month, then the organization would urge its member schools to embrace the recommendations. Supporters say the stricter standards should bring sweeping changes to academic medical centers.

"We feel this is a really important starting point," said Robert Restuccia, executive director of the Prescription Project, which helps academic centers and others eliminate conflicts of interest.