Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13825
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: news
Silverman E.
The AMA Decides Not To Ban CME Funding
Pharmalot 2008 Jun 16
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/06/will-the-ama-ban-cme-funding/
Notes:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/471/ceja1-2.doc
Full text:
The American Medical Association’s house of delegates this afternoon decided a proposal to rid medical education of industry funding needs more review. The controversial proposal was made by the AMA’s Council on Judicial and Ethical Affairs to end pharma funds for residency positions and clinical fellowships; educational programs, such as live or web-based CME; physician speakers’ bureaus; and travel, lodging, and amenities for CME participants.
Other recommendations include a ban on industry gifts, meals and detailing at med schools, and an unspecified effort to secure non-commercial funding sources. One exception was suggested for training in new diagnostic or therapeutic devices and techniques, because industry reps may have to play an educational role as the only available teachers. However, once expertise is developed, the committee maintains industry involvement is “no longer warranted.”
In explaining the proposal, the committee writes “To promote continued innovation and improvement in patient care, medicine must sustain ongoing, productive relationships with the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. However, industry support of professional education has raised concerns that threaten the integrity of medicine’s educational function.” Here is the summary.
The proposal was already controversial before the AMA convention began this weekend in Chicago, and a reference committee yesterday passed along the proposal to the house of delegates with a recommendation that the topic should be reviewed still more, rather than adopted. And so the house of delegates did just that – they opted for still more review, an AMA spokeswoman tells us.
