BACKGROUND There is an emerging literature on the existence and effect of industry relationships on physician and researcher behavior. Much less is known, however, about the effects of these relationships and other conflicts of interest (COI) on clinical practice guideline (CPG) development and recommendations. We performed a systematic review of the prevalence of COI and its effect on CPG reco...

The practice of contemporary pain medicine is laced with a number of significant ethical challenges. Considerable difficulties include the overutilization of interventional procedures, the application of under-evidenced treatment modalities, and potentially superfluous opioid prescribing. As with many other fields in medicine, including orthopedic surgery, relationships with industry are both c...

the state and federal governments that pay much of the cost of prescription drugs for their employees and for the poor or uninsured. An alternative to this model is to have physicians, relying on their training and experience, peer-reviewed journa l articles, and non-industry-sponsored continuing medical education, determine what medications are appropriate for their patients. Elliott argues th...

I n the current issue of CHEST (see pages 1255 and 1257), two thoughtful leaders of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) frame an issue that confronts most physicians today—the relationship between us, the physicians, and the medical products industry. This relationship connects those who sell medical products (pharmaceutical or technology) and those who prescribe the use of those pr...

Ten years ago, when our firm was asked to recruit a CEO or executive vice president and we asked the search committee if they would consider a physician, the answer was generally, “Sure, we’ll consider a physician, but we really need someone with a lot of experience in strategy, finance and operations.” The unsaid ending of that sentence was, “We don’t think physicians have those skills.” Five ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Gifts to physicians from the pharmaceutical industry are receiving increased scrutiny, but no previous research has evaluated the effect of such gifts on trust. The goal of this study is to determine patient awareness of interactions between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry and to learn whether those interactions impact trust and the doctor-patient relationsh...

Promotion of medical products by manufacturers to physicians in the US has been widespread for over a century [1], and in its traditional form includes strategies such as direct detailing visits (inperson product promotion by a pharmaceutical representative), sponsorship of Continuing Medical Education programs, gifts or other inducements, and free samples [2]. In the past two decades, numerous...