John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight HBO show on February 8, 2015 highlighted what is common sense to the average patient: money and gifts from the medical industry bias doctors and can interfere with cost-effective, high-quality care. If you have not seen this 17-minute clip, take a look at it via www.youtube.com/watch?v1⁄4YQZ2UeOTO3I. A patient who perceived such a bias wrote about it in Health Af...

BACKGROUND Relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical, medical device, and other medically related industries have received considerable attention in recent years. We surveyed physicians to collect information about their financial associations with industry and the factors that predict those associations. METHODS We conducted a national survey of 3167 physicians in six specialties (...

This is part 1 of a 2-part paper on ethics and physician-industry relationships. Part 1 offers advice to individual physicians; part 2 gives recommendations to medical education providers and medical professional societies. Physicians and industry have a shared interest in advancing medical knowledge. Nonetheless, the primary ethic of the physician is to promote the patient's best interests, wh...

When it comes to physician-pharmaceutical manufacturer relationships, the old adage "there's no such thing as a free lunch" has been given much support lately by federal fraud and abuse enforcement authorities. In light of recent enforcement developments and initiatives, physicians must now, more than ever, develop an understanding of the legal boundaries of regulatory and ethical guidelines an...

TO THE EDITOR: The American College of Physicians (ACP) continues to evaluate issues related to relationships between physicians and industry and between physician organizations and industry and to work to emphasize relationships that maximize the interests of the patient. Recently, the College approved a revision to position 1 (Industry Gifts, Hospitality, Services, and Subsidies) of our posit...

The effective delivery and continued advancement of health care is critically dependent on the relationship between physicians and industry. The private sector accounts for 60% of the funding for clinical research and more than 50% of the funding sources for physician education. The nature of the physician-industry relationship and the role of the physician as a gatekeeper for health care make ...