Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13602

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

Alpert JS.
Doctors and the drug industry: further thoughts for dealing with potential conflicts of interest?
Am J Med 2008 Apr; 121:(4):253-5
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0002-9343(08)00053-3

Abstract:

In February, 2005, The American Journal of Medicine published my commentary concerning the relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry.1 The subject of satire for centuries, the close economic connections between doctors and druggists or apothecaries has taken a new form in the 21st century. Contemporary global discussions involve attempts to define ethically appropriate behavior involving physicians and the pharmaceutical and/or device companies. The question is repeatedly asked: Should physicians have any dealings at all with these industrial giants? In the US, Congress and the media have taken a great interest in these relationships and their potential for abuse. There is expressed societal concern that the current high cost of pharmaceutical agents is the result of connections between doctors and industry that are fraught with potential for conflict of interest. As a result of the debate surrounding this possibly conflicted relationship, some medical schools and medical centers have recently banned industry representatives from their campuses…

…Are there potential solutions to the difficult ethical, philosophical, and social problems just described? In essence, I think that there are potential solutions that do not entail a complete separation of doctors and pharmaceutical representatives-something that I believe to be impossible in our country…

Keywords:
Publication Types: Comment MeSH Terms: Conflict of Interest* Drug Industry/ethics* Ethics, Professional Humans Interdisciplinary Communication Marketing of Health Services/ethics Physician's Practice Patterns/ethics* Total Quality Management United States

Notes:

Comment on:
Am J Med. 2005 Feb;118(2):99-100.