Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11951

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Moghimi Y.
The 'PharmFree' campaign: educating medical students about industry influence.
PLoS Med 2006 Jan; 3:(1):e30
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030030

Abstract:

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), with more than a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. As the voice for over 50,000 members, AMSA has prided itself on fostering ideals such as honesty and integrity, and on promoting the interests of patients and communities.

In 2002, when AMSA launched its nationwide PharmFree campaign to educate medical students about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medical training (http://www.amsa.org/prof/pharmfree.cfm), those ideals were being threatened by the lavish trips, gifts, and fancy meals that pharmaceutical companies were providing doctors to change their prescribing habits. With one pharmaceutical representative for every 15 practicing doctors [1], many doctors began to rely on representatives as a quick source of new information during their busy days. At the same time, most clinical programs lacked guidelines for how health-care professionals should deal with drug representatives [2]. Despite the lack of leadership on this issue from the mainstream medical community, idealistic medical students at AMSA rose to the occasion…

Keywords:
MeSH Terms: Attitude of Health Personnel Drug Industry/ethics* Education, Medical, Undergraduate*/methods Gift Giving* Humans Information Dissemination Marketing of Health Services Persuasive Communication* Societies, Medical

Notes:

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