News in brief - Sept. 15, 2008

Stanford changes rules on industry funding for CME

The Stanford University School of Medicine in August became the latest medical school to change how it handles industry funding for continuing medical education programs. Under the new policy, pharmaceutical companies and device makers can still direct funds to general clinical areas such as "medical, pediatric and surgical specialties" but cannot pick specific courses to fund.

The move comes on the heels of recommendations from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges on how academic medical centers can reduce potential conflicts of interest and bias in medical education. Five other medical schools have adopted similar policies, according to the Prescription Project, a group that advocates severing medicine's financial ties to industry. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has banned all industry support for CME.

At its Annual Meeting in June, the AMA House of Delegates referred for further study a report recommending a gradual end to industry funding of medical education.

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County society apologizes for excluding black doctor

A Central Illinois medical society apologized in August for its past treatment of black physicians. The Sangamon County Medical Society, which encompasses the state capital of Springfield, highlighted its "most embarrassing" and "egregious mistake" of twice denying membership to Alonzo H. Kenniebrew, MD.

Dr. Kenniebrew was a 1897 graduate of Meharry Medical College in Tennessee and the first resident at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He moved to Jacksonville, Ill., in 1902 and started a hospital. Historical documents indicate he also had some privileges at the Springfield hospital. Eventually the county medical society was able to convince that hospital to make admitting privileges contingent on membership.

In 1929, Dr. Kenniebrew applied for SCMS membership, but was ignored. He later moved to the Chicago area and was granted membership in the Cook County Medical Society. In 1934, he returned to Central Illinois and applied for a transfer membership to SCMS. It was never granted.

The apology was prompted by the AMA's July apology for rules that effectively allowed state and county medical societies to exclude black doctors from membership. That practice ended in 1968. The AMA has put additional information online (www.ama-assn.org/go/afamhistory).

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