Probing Doctor and Pharmaceutical Industry Ties, part 2
The National Survey on Doctor-Industry Relationships reports the last two decades has seen a flurry of writing and research about the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical, medical device, and other medically related industries. The authors of this survey mention a review of 16 studies published between 1982 and 1997 that suggests doctors and industry reps, on average, met four times a month, and accepted six gifts a year from them. Dr Eric Campbell at the Institute for Health Policy, Boston, and colleagues, used information about the doctors' financial links with industry and then tried to predict the factors that influence them. They surveyed 3,167 doctors from six specialties: anesthesiology, cardiology, family practice, general surgery, internal medicine, and pediatrics. The response rate was over 50 per cent. The study authors review the results of a survey of US doctors that was conducted by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and address three questions:
(1) What do doctors actually receive (including financial incentives) from industry reps and their companies?
(2) How often do they meet with industry reps?
(3) What characterizes the relationship between doctors and these industries?
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