JAMA Article Attacks Relationships Between Doctors and Drug Manufacturers
The Journal of the American Medical Association published an article criticizing conflicts of interest that may exist due to the close ties between drug manufacturers and doctors. According to the Washington Post, the JAMA article attacks the current voluntary guidelines to limit conflicts of interest have failed. The WaPo article points to numerous means by which physicians receive benefits from drug manufacturers:
From their first rounds as residents, doctors travel in a world increasingly dominated by drug company salespeople proffering meals, office supplies, entertainment and even cash to speak at conferences or sit on advisory boards.Some physicians have been paid lucrative consulting retainers for no specific work; others are paid to put their names on articles ghostwritten by industry employees. One congressional inquiry cited in the report found that pharmaceutical executives steer research grants to doctors and schools that promote their firms' drugs.
The JAMA authors, including the president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, urge a number of steps to curtail actual or perceived conflicts of interest within the medical profession. An abstract of the article is available here at the JAMA website, with the full text available to subscribers.