New URMC Policy on Medical Industry Interactions

American Medical Student Association’s PharmFree Initiative: an ongoing campaign founded in 2002 by AMSA, in collaboration with No Free Lunch, to organize political activism challenging the practice of pharmaceutical gifting to students and physicians. Take the Pharmfree Pledge to accept no money, gifts, or hospitality from the pharmaceutical industry.

The new AMSA PharmFree Scorecard 2008: Conflict of Interest Policies at Academic Medical Centers. University of Rochester received an incomplete grade as the institution is currently revising its policies.

AMSA’s PharmFree Scorecard (pdf, 132 KB): a grading system that evaluates Academic Medical Centers’ policies that restrict pharmaceutical representative access to both the medical school campus and the medical center.  University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry received a C- for lacking a policy but “discussing the formation of policy, and/or students and the faculty are receiving some education regarding industry interactions.”

The Medical Letter: first published in 1959, this biweekly newsletter provides independent, unbiased critical appraisals of new drugs and comparative reviews of older drugs.

The Carlat Psychiatry Blog: Supporting the search for honesty in medical education. From the author: "The Blog is not peer-reviewed, is not ACCME-accredited, and is definitely very biased. My opinion, formed as a result of participating in many CME activities, is that allowing pharmaceutical companies to sponsor accredited medical education leads to many bad things, including biased education, corrupt physicians, and, ultimately, harm to our patients...If you are interested in the tangled politics and economics of CME, read on!"

No Free Lunch: a US-based advocacy organization that holds that marketing methods employed by drug companies influence the way doctors and other healthcare providers prescribe medications.

Healthy Skepticism: an International organization whose main aim is “to improve health by reducing harm from misleading drug promotion.”  In addition to helpful resources, they have an extensive, up-to-date library with references relative to drug promotion.

The Prescription Project: Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project seeks to eliminate conflicts of interest created by industry marketing by promoting policy change among academic medical centers, professional medical societies, and public and private payers.

PharmedOut: An independent, publicly funded project that empowers physicians to identify and counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices.  They provide links to pharma-free CME courses.

Alliance for Human Research Protection: a national network of lay people and professionals dedicated to advancing responsible and ethical medical research practices, minimizing the risks associated with such endeavors, and ensuring that the human rights, dignity, and welfare of human subjects are protected.

The Unbranded Doctor: A National Physicians Alliance's campaign created to unmask the Pharmaceutical Industry's bogus claim that its marketing efforts are just educational ventures for physicians. The National Physicians Alliance, founded in 2005 by former leaders of the American Medical Student Association, seeks to restore physicians' primary emphasis on the core values of our profession: service, integrity, and advocacy.

Committee on Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice: An Institute of Medicine group organized to create a consensus report that will: examine and describe conflicts of interest involving health care professionals and industry in different contexts; propose principles to inform the design of policies, guidelines, and other tools to identify and manage these conflicts of interest; and consider methods to disseminate, promote, implement, and evaluate these principles and policies. Click on the link above to review the report as it develops (the final project meeting is not until Oct. 16, 2008).

The Government Accountability Project: Section on Drug Safety

“Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs (2006)”  A video created by the Media Education Foundation, with interviews from such notables as Marcia Angell, MD (Dept. of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Former Editor New England Journal of Medicine), Bob Goodman, MD (Columbia University Medical Center; Founder, No Free Lunch), and Gene Carbona (Former Pharmaceutical Industry Insider and Current Executive Director of Sales, The Medical Letter). You can access the video as an individual viewer here.

Side Effects: a film, starring Katherine Heigl, based on the experiences of a former pharmaceutical sales rep, Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau (writer/director).