Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A strong majority of those running specialized medical residency programs that train new doctors think it’s a bad idea to cut deals with the pharmaceutical industry. But many of these very same administrators do so anyway because they can’t bring themselves to forego the financial support their programs enjoy from drug makers.
In an article published by the Archives of Internal Medicine, 72% of directors overseeing internal medicine residency programs dislike the idea of receiving help from pharmaceutical companies, for fear that doing so might create potential conflicts of interest for the physicians in training. Nevertheless, 55% of respondents to a questionnaire by the Survey Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine said they allow the drug industry to pay for educational materials like pocket guides, meal programs, office supplies and pill samples.
The one piece of good news from the survey showed that the rate of taking help was down from 1990, when it was 88%.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Doctor Training Aided by Drug Industry Cash (by Duff Wilson, New York Times)
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