Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9850

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

Roehr B.
More than 90% of US doctors receive favours from drug companies
BMJ 2007 Apr 28; 334:(7599):869
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7599/869-a

Abstract:

Ties between American doctors and the drug and medical devices industries are ubiquitous, concludes a large national US survey of doctors.

An analysis of the 1662 responses to the survey, which was supported by the non-profit Institute on Medicine as a Profession, found that 94% of respondents reported some form of relationship with drug companies (New England Journal of Medicine 2007;356:1742-50). The most common benefits of such relationships were receiving food in the workplace (reported by 83% of respondents) and receiving free drug samples (78%), while more than a third (35%) were reimbursed for attending professional meetings or training, and a quarter (28%) were compensated for consulting or enrolling patients in clinical trials that were beyond the cost of those trials.

The authors found intriguing differences between the six medical specialties studied-anaesthesiology, cardiology, family practice, general surgery, internal medicine, and paediatrics-as well as by sex and place of employment.

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