Medical Students Nationwide Remove Conflicts Of Interest - 5th Annual National PharmFree Week Underway, USA

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry;  Conferences
Article Date: 15 Oct 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Medical students across the country are celebrating the 5th Annual National PharmFree Week, "Promoting Evidence-Based Practice, Preserving Pharmaceutical Innovation," which allows them to educate themselves and their colleagues about reclaiming the ethics of medicine by removing conflicts of interest and restoring the patient-physician relationship.

PharmFree Week is sponsored by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's oldest and largest independent association for physicians-in-training. Over the course of the week, thousands of future physicians and health care leaders will hold events across the country aimed to restore a fundamental aspect of the patient-physician relationship. Highlights include:

Saturday, October 11 Beyond Drug Reps, Access to Essential Medicines
Medical students from all over the country attended a symposium at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine entitled "Bridging the Gap: PharmFree and Access to Essential Medicines." Students heard from experts on global access to essential medicines - such as antiretroviral medications for HIV/AIDS - and learned how to advocate for lower drug prices and patent reform.

Tuesday, October 14 Premeds Now, PharmFree Leaders Tomorrow
Premedical students will learn about pharmaceutical marketing and its impact on physician prescribing. This will provide students, at an early stage in their careers, with an understanding of the difference between evidence-based medicine and medicine influenced by pharmaceutical advertising practices.

Wednesday, October 15 Pursuing Excellence: Helping Your School Achieve an 'A' Policy
The State University of New York Upstate Medical University (Upstate Medical University) will soon be rewriting their conflict of interest policy, in collaboration with medical students at the school. While the school received a grade of 'B' on the 2008 AMSA PharmFree Scorecard (www.amsascorecard.org), they are not satisfied with partial reduction of the pharmaceutical industry's marketing influence on medicine. "By creating an even stronger institutional policy on physician-industry relationships, we will remain a role-model in the medical community, and we will prove to our patients that we strongly value the role of 'best evidence' prescribing practices," says Jennifer Muniak, a third year student at Upstate Medical University. At an ethics dinner hosted by the medical school, faculty and students will enter discourse regarding strengthening their university's policy.

Thursday, October 16: Symposium at Georgetown University Ending Industry Influence over Medical Education
Medical students from six schools in the Washington, D.C. area have been invited to attend a symposium on conflicts of interests, which includes a discussion with Shannon Brownlee, the author of Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making us Sicker and Poorer. Students will then participate in workshops designed to help them hone strategies for helping their schools "go PharmFree" through the implementation of conflict of interest policies.

Friday, October 17: Rally at Harvard Medical School Taking a Stand Against Conflicts of Interest: Medical Professionals Unite
Students, physicians and allied medical professionals will call upon Harvard Medical School and affiliated hospitals to create a robust conflict of interest policy, at a rally on the Harvard Medical School Longwood campus quad at 3:30pm on Friday, October 17.

Last month, after Harvard physician-researchers failed to completely disclose industry payments, students demanded full disclosure of all conflicts by their physician-teachers. This demand was recently met by Harvard Medical School. Currently, Harvard is the only Boston medical school not developing a strong policy, according to the AMSA PharmFree Scorecard. Students and their allies will also call on the Governor of Massachusetts to fund - in full - the academic detailing program that was part of the recently-passed Massachusetts bill on pharmaceutical industry regulation.

Pharmaceutical industry marketing to doctors has been estimated at $28 billion to $46 billion per year, with additional promotion by the medical device industry. This equates, conservatively, to $35,000 per year in marketing directed at each physician, on average. Pharmaceutical representatives visit U.S. physicians, providing free lunches, gifts, marketing paraphernalia and free medication samples. These enticements are designed to influence doctors to prescribe more drugs and more expensive drugs and have often become a substitute for objective medical evidence. "Medical students have been leading the movement against conflicts of interest within medicine," says Dr. Brian Hurley, AMSA national president. "The PharmFree movement revitalizes professionalism in medical education and seeks to preserve pharmaceutical innovation. Physicians should practice evidence-based medicine using the best existing clinical evidence - not carefully-packaged advertising - and continue to uphold personal and professional integrity."

Launched in 2002, AMSA's PharmFree Campaign encourages medical schools and academic medical centers to develop policies that limit the access of pharmaceutical company representatives to their campuses and prohibit medical students and physicians from accepting gifts of any kind from these representatives. In June 2008, AMSA released its PharmFree Scorecard, a comprehensive ranking of conflict-of-interest policies across the country, as well as an in-depth, school-by-school look at policies that govern industry interaction with medical school faculty and trainees.

National PharmFree Week is supported by a grant from The Medical Letter Inc. (www.medicalletter.org). For more information on the PharmFree Campaign or events during National PharmFree Week, visit www.pharmfree.org.

About the American Medical Student Association

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), with more than a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. With more than 67,000 members, including medical and premedical students, residents and practicing physicians, AMSA is committed to improving medical training as well as advancing the profession of medicine. AMSA focuses on four strategic priorities, including advocating for quality, affordable health care for all, global health equity, enriching medicine through diversity and professional integrity, development and student well being. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at www.amsa.org.