A group of top health care thought leaders published a plan in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association for academic medical centers to "take the lead in eliminating the conflicts of interest that still characterize the relationship between physicians and the health care industry."
The group writes: "Although physician groups, the manufacturers, and the federal government have instituted self-regulation of marketing, research in the psychology and social science of gift receipt and giving indicates that current controls will not satisfactorily protect the interests of patients. More stringent regulation is necessary, including the elimination or modification of common practices related to small gifts, pharmaceutical samples, continuing medical education, funds for physician travel, speakers bureaus, ghostwriting, and consulting and research contracts."
But Merrill Goozner at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who has tackled health care conflict of interest questions since leaving newsroom journalism, writes in his blog that the group didn't go far enough. For example, he writes: "First, by focusing on the nation's academic medical centers, they ignore the fact that most of the drug and device industries' marketing practices are aimed at the nation's nearly one million practicing physicians, not the elite in the nation's medical schools. ... Moreover, the practice of medicine is heavily influenced by clinical practice guidelines written by professional associations or patient advocacy groups like the American Society of Clinical Oncologists or the American Heart Association. ... While many academicians sit on these guideline writing committees and most groups have strong conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements, industry exerts extraordinary influence over the guidelines either through direct funding of these groups or ongoing relationships with members of the guideline-writing committees. This proposal does nothing to liberate the writing of clinical practice guidelines from industry influence."
Posted by schwitz at January 25, 2006 09:06 AM | TrackBack