Guidelines on gifts to physicians from industry: an update.

On December 3, 1990, the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs issued its six guidelines on gifts to physicians from industry.' Since then, the Council has received numerous requests for interpretations of the guidelines. Many questions about the application of the guidelines can be answered by referring to the full report of the Council that was presented with the guidelines to the American Medical Association's (AMA's) House of Delegates. The report provides the reasoning behind the guidelines. In addition, the Council has prepared a number of interpretations in response to representative questions about the guidelines. These interpretations were issued on October 9, 1991. The remainder of this article includes the text of the full report of the Council, the six guidelines, and the representative questions and interpretations. Each of the questions and interpretations is listed under the applicable guideline.