American Medical Student Association Announces Enhanced Pharmfree Scorecard 2.0

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail;  Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 25 Oct 2007 - 14:00 PDT

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The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's largest, independent medical student organization, announces it will release PharmFree Scorecard 2.0, an updated ranking of all 125 U.S. academic centers according to their pharmaceutical influence policies. The scorecard will include a Web-integrated metric that will help current and future medical students work toward "Pharmfree" medical education and patient care.

PharmFree Scorecard 2.0, developed in conjunction with the Prescription Project, a Boston-based watchdog organization on medical conflicts of interest, will include enhanced metrics and will assess policies in a number of areas, including whether healthcare professionals are allowed to accept gifts, drug samples, travel or meals from pharmaceutical industry representatives. Institutions will also be scored on how they handle industry funding for educational programs, conflicts of interest among staff that make purchasing decisions, and access pharmaceutical and medical device sales representatives have to the campus or clinical facilities.

The original PharmFree Scorecard, launched in May 2007, was the first to rank medical schools according to their pharmaceutical influence policies. Of all the medical schools in the United States, five received a grade of "A," which translates into comprehensive school policy that restricts pharmaceutical representatives to both the medical school campus and its academic medical centers. Forty schools received an "F" for their lack of a policy.

"An institution's pharmaceutical industry policy is indicative of the ethical and practical foundation it can offer students," says Michael Ehlert, M.D., AMSA national president. "By releasing an updated scorecard, we will gather even more information to improve healthcare's commitment to evidence-based medicine and to our patients. It is important to reassess the environment as medical schools continue to evaluate and institute comprehensive pharmaceutical influence policies."

"We were excited to work with AMSA on Scorecard 2.0," said Robert Restuccia, executive director of the Prescription Project. "It's particularly encouraging to see these physicians-in-training demanding a higher standard for their own education by this benchmark. It's a good sign for medicine's future."

Launched in 2002, AMSA's PharmFree campaign encourages medical schools and academic medical centers to develop policies that remove the influence of industry marketing from clinical decision making by, for example, limiting the access of pharmaceutical company representatives to their campuses and prohibiting medical students and physicians from accepting gifts of any kind from these representatives. AMSA also offers its members the opportunity to sign a PharmFree pledge that states they will "accept no money, gifts, or hospitality from the pharmaceutical industry" and "seek unbiased sources of information." AMSA was one of the first national medical organizations to ban all pharmaceutical advertising in its publications and at its events. For a detailed history of the PharmFree movement, visit http://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 68,000 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 universal healthcare, disparities in medicine, diversity in medicine and transforming the culture of medical education. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at http://www.amsa.org/.

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