Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15832

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Publication type: news

Wahlberg D.
University of Wisconsin-Madison's medical school gets a B for conflict-of-interest policies
Wisconsin State Journal 2009 Jun 17
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/455280

Full text:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health received a B for its conflict-of-interest policies this week on the American Medical Student Association’s annual PharmFree Scorecard.

Last year, the medical school initially got a D. School officials appealed and the mark was upgraded to a B.

This year, the student group said the medical school has strong policies on industry interaction, including a “commendable” policy on samples from drug companies. The school replaces the samples with vouchers for patients, who also have equal access to generic drugs.

But, the student group said, “certain exceptions for educational gifts allow pharmaceutical marketing to continue to exert inappropriate influence on prescribing behavior.”

Dr. Patrick McBride, the medical school’s associate dean of students, said several policies are under review and likely will become more strict.

“There’s a very good chance we’ll be an A next year,” he said.

This year, of the country’s 149 medical schools, nine received an A and 36 got a B.