June 27, 2007

Pharma's growing influence on continuing medical education

The Washington Post reports on a troubling trend:

Drug companies have become the biggest sponsors of continuing medical education courses in recent years, even at the nation's top medical schools, a development that critics say raises health-care costs, skews doctors' treatment decisions and allows the industry to skirt laws against advertising "off-label" uses for its products.

The trend accelerated after the government backed off a plan to limit commercial sponsorships in 2002 at the urging of the industry, Senate investigators said.

Now, nearly two-thirds of the cost of continuing education courses sponsored by medical schools, popular for their prestige, are paid for by drug and medical device companies and other commercial interests, figures show. Overall, commercial sponsors pick up about half of the $2.25 billion annual cost of the courses doctors must attend to keep their licenses.

"Most of what doctors know about drugs comes from the industry, and that's not healthy," said Jerry Avorn, a Harvard Medical School professor and critic of the sponsorships. "Academic organizations lend their names to courses that are nothing more than infomercials."

Posted by schwitz at June 27, 2007 09:14 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Dear Gary:

I just came across your blog. This is a very informative and well put-together blog. Thanks for organizing it.

This story is quite timely and I'm glad you have done it. Indeed large pharma companies do have a strong-hold on physician CME which translates into less knowledge about important breakthroughs in nutrition that in some ways ecclipse traditional medicines.

Take for example the fact that researchers at the University of Illinois have recently demonstrated that a diet rich in broccoli and tomatoes was more effective in inhibiting prostate cancer than a leading drug for prostate cancer marketed by Merck. Or the recent discovery at UC Berkeley that Diindolylmethane from Brassica vegetables has potent anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, with synegistic activity to the leading cancer drug Taxol.

If physician CME was less tainted by keeping up with large pharma's pipeline products and could afford a look at what is going on in the emerging field of molecular nutrition, everyone could benefit and the costs of healthcare could come down as well.

Thanks again for this informative website.

Regards,

Mike D

References:

http://www.diindolylmethane.org/

http://www.activamune.com/news.htm

Posted by: Mike D at June 30, 2007 01:08 PM
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