MSNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doctors still taking drug company freebies
Ethics rules aimed to avoid conflicts of interest not working, study says
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:40 p.m. ET April 25, 2007
Four out of five doctors surveyed said they let drug and device makers buy them food and drinks despite recent efforts to tighten ethics rules and avoid conflicts of interest.
The national survey also found that family doctors were more likely to meet with industry sales representatives, and that cardiologists were more likely to pocket fees than other specialists.
The study is the first to document the extent of the relationships between doctors and sales reps since 2002 when a leading industry group adopted voluntary guidelines discouraging companies from giving doctors gifts or tickets. In general, researchers found hardly anything had changed since previous studies a couple years earlier.
Consumer advocates say this is proof the new rules aren’t working.
“These findings are fairly disturbing. There appears to be no dialing back at all on these relationships,” said Merrill Goozner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The survey, published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, was done by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Yale University and the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Researchers mailed questionnaires to 3,167 doctors around the nation and 1,662 replied. ****About 95 percent said they had contact with drug or device companies.
Other findings:
83 percent received food and drinks
78 percent ccepted free drug samples
35 percent were reimbursed for costs associated with
professional meetings
28 percent pocketed consulting or lectyre fees.
7 percent took free tickets to games and other events.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Could this have anything to do with why your doctor prescribes the $3.00 pill instead of the 50 cent equivalent??
