Harvard Medical School in Ethics Quandary

[El Greco]

It's about time (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/business/03medschool.html?em&exprod=myyahoo). And this is only the tip of the iceberg. As far as I know (and being in a relative profession I know enough), the situation with corrupted relationships between doctors/universities and pharmaceutical companies is extremely filthy.

[Soapy Sam]

Clearly there must be cooperation between universities, teaching hospitals and the drug companies. It would be disingenuous to deny this- but it should be absolutely open.

[T.A.M.]

There does tend to be some openness about this, as of late. Many of the talks/CME I go to, for the most part, will have an opening slide disclosing any relationships the presenter has with the companies, and in particular, the company that is sponsoring the talk. This also occurs with many published studies these days.

Openness, as you said, is the key. It is, to a degree, a symbiotic relationship, but it should always be an ethical one.

For instance, the Pharma companies provide my office with an abundance of samples, and they know I use these samples to give to many of my poor patients. In turn, when they come to the clinic, I give them 5 minutes of my time so they can present their latest bit of product info.

A subject that I struggle with, for sure.

TAM:)