MORE MEDICAL SCHOOLS BEEF UP CONFLICTS POLICIES

But report says many medical schools have inadequate conflict-of-interest, medical-device policies.

Wall Street Journal Health Blogger, Shirley S. Wang points out that although "more medical schools are improving their conflict-of-interest policies to police their ties with drug and medical-device makers," more than half of the schools "still have inadequate policies or no policies at all," according to data from the American Medical Student Association and the Pew Prescription Project. In the report, "45, or a third, of medical schools rated earned a 'A' or 'B' grade on the latest AMSA PharmFree Scorecard, which means the school made 'a serious attempt to think and address the appropriate relationship of medical faculty to the pharmaceutical and medical-device industry.'" Last year, "just 21 schools were awarded one of these top grades.

More medical schools are improving their conflict-of-interest policies to police their ties with drug and medical-device makers.
But more than half the schools still have inadequate policies or no policies at all.

Forty-five, or a third, of medical schools rated earned a “A” or “B” grade on the latest AMSA PharmFree Scorecard, which means the school made “a serious attempt to think and address the appropriate relationship of medical faculty to the pharmaceutical and medical-device industry,” Last year, just 21 schools were awarded one of these top grades.

The groups’ goal isn’t to sever relationships between the academic medical community and the private sector, which are needed to advance new technology.Rather, “company marketing should become less of a driver of prescribing. Gifts, free meals and paying doctors to be on speaker’s bureaus are undesirable in the groups’ eyes.

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*Tune in later for LONGER-TERM HORMONE THERAPY APPEARS TO BE THE STANDARD OF CARE IN ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER.

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