The “PharmFree” Campaign: Educating Medical Students about Industry Influence

T he 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. As the voice for over 50,000 members, AMSA has prided itself on fostering ideals such as honesty and integrity, and on promoting the interests of patients and communities. In 2002, when AMSA launched its nationwide PharmFree campaign to educate medical students about the infl uence of the pharmaceutical industry on medical training (http:⁄⁄www.amsa. org/prof/pharmfree.cfm), those ideals were being threatened by the lavish trips, gifts, and fancy meals that pharmaceutical companies were providing doctors to change their prescribing habits. With one pharmaceutical representative for every 15 practicing doctors [1], many doctors began to rely on representatives as a quick source of new information during their busy days. At the same time, most clinical programs lacked guidelines for how health-care professionals should deal with drug representatives [2]. Despite the lack of leadership on this issue from the mainstream medical community, idealistic medical students at AMSA rose to the occasion. In 2002, the leaders of AMSA became concerned that the pharmaceutical industry's marketing tactics could compromise the personal and professional integrity of doctors. The PharmFree Initiative began as an educational campaign, in collaboration with No Free Lunch (http:⁄⁄www. nofreelunch.org) and Healthy Skepticism (http:⁄⁄healthyskepticism. org), encouraging all physicians-in-training and health-care providers to seek out evidence-based and unbiased sources of information, rather than relying on industry personnel for education. To be a full member of the campaign, AMSA encouraged students to sign a pledge (Box 1). Students who signed the pledge were given PharmFree paraphernalia, such as pens and badgeholders, to show their colleagues and patients that they were not being infl uenced by pharmaceutical company promotional tactics. In response to the need for unbiased information on prescription drugs, AMSA forged ties with an independent, peer-reviewed nonprofi t organization, called The Medical Letter, which offers critical evaluation of new drugs by authors with no ties to industry (http:⁄⁄www.medletter.com). Members of AMSA were encouraged to use this source and other unbiased sources to learn about new drugs. Even before the PharmFree campaign began, AMSA had already taken steps to ensure that their members were not exposed to pharmaceutical bias. Since 1978, AMSA banned pharmaceutical booths in the conference exhibit halls. Its monthly publication, The New Physician , is one of the few medical magazines free of …