Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16568

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

Chisholm CD, Gentile NT, Gerhardt RT, Hauswald M, Mycyk MB, Sinert R, Sokolove PE
Medical Advertisements in Medical Journals: the Case Against
Academic Emergency Medicine 2009 Oct 1; 16:(10):981 - 983
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122615073/abstract

Abstract:

The mission of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) is ‘‘To improve patient care by advancing research and education in emergency medicine.’’ We, the undersigned members of the editorial board of SAEM’s journal, Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), believe that accepting pharmaceutical and medical device advertising would directly conflict with this mission. AEM does not currently have such advertising; we believe that it should retain this status. Furthermore, we argue that no peer-reviewed or academic medical journal should accept advertisements for pharmaceuticals or medical devices.

Candid and detailed discussions regarding this matter were held among members of the editorial board both online and at national meetings. We noted, not surprisingly, that the sole impetus for altering our journal’s ‘‘no advertising’’ practice was financial. Historically, AEM has had sufficient funding to maintain its habitually high volume of quality manuscripts. Additional revenue is always welcome; we can all think of meritorious projects that SAEM and AEM could undertake if we had more income, but we think that incorporating medical advertisements into our funding stream would compromise our journal’s mission and high standards. AEM represents one of the most visible and widely distributed faces of SAEM. In this role, it should serve as both a standard and a leader for our specialty.

We do not seek to debate the merits of the pharmaceutical or medical device industries…