Group urges ban on medical giveaways
An Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) task force urges drug companies should be banned from offering giveaways to doctors, staff, and students at medical institutions, reports the New York Times.
The proposed ban is the result of a two-year effort by the group to create a model policy governing interactions between the medical institutions and industry. The ban would aim to eliminate free food, gifts, consulting arrangements, ghostwriting services, and other offers that may establish reciprocal relationships that can inject bias, distort decision-making and create the perception among colleagues, students, trainees and the public that practitioners are being bought or bribed by industry.
The task force is also discouraging faculty participation in industry-funded speakers' bureaus, a recommendation that has met opposition from pharmaceutical companies, who maintain that the content of such programmes is strongly regulated.
The group's recommendations will be reviewed in June by the AAMC's Executive Council.
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