The American Journal of Medicine
Volume 122, Issue 9 , Pages 875-878 , September 2009

Low Rates of Reporting Commercial Bias by Physicians Following Online Continuing Medical Education Activities

  • Julie A. Ellison, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Medscape LLC, New York, NY
    • Corresponding Author InformationRequests for reprints should be addressed to Julie Ellison, PhD, Medscape, LLC, 370 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1101, New York, NY 10001
    • ,
  • Charles H. Hennekens, MD

      Affiliations

    • Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
    • ,
  • Jing Wang, MS

      Affiliations

    • Medscape LLC, New York, NY
    • ,
  • George D. Lundberg, MD

      Affiliations

    • Medscape LLC, New York, NY
    • ,
  • Destry Sulkes, MD

      Affiliations

    • Medscape LLC, New York, NY

References 

  1. DelSignore JL. Current guidelines regarding industry-sponsored continuing medical education. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2003;412:21–27
  2. Cornish JK, Leist JC. What constitutes commercial bias compared with the personal opinion of experts. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2006;26:161–167
  3. Committee on Finance, US Senate. Committee Staff Report to the Chairman and Ranking Member: Use of Educational Grants by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; 2007;
  4. Hampton T. Experts debate need to improve quality and oversight of continuing education. JAMA. 2008;299:1003–1004
  5. Steinbrook R. Financial support of continuing medical education. JAMA. 2008;299:1060–1062
  6. Brennan TA, Rothman DJ, Blank L, et al. Health industry practices that create conflict of interest: a policy proposal for academic medical centers. JAMA. 2006;295:429–433
  7. Warner-Lambert to pay $430 million to resolve criminal and civil health care liability relating to off-label promotion. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice; May 13, 2004;http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/May/04_civ_322.htmAccessed July 17, 2008
  8. Pharmaceutical Company Cephalon to Pay $425 Million for Off-Label Drug Marketing. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/pae/News/Pr/2008/sep/cephalonrelease.pdfAccessed October 14, 2008
  9. Angell M. The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It. New York: Random House; 2005;
  10. Blumenthal D. Doctors and drug companies. N Engl J Med. 2004;351:1885–1890
  11. DeAngelis CD, Fontanarosa PB. Impugning the integrity of medical science: the adverse effects of industry influence. JAMA. 2008;299:1833–1835
  12. Steinbrook R. Commercial support for continuing medical education. N Engl J Med. 2005;352:534–535
  13. Relman AS. Industry support of medical education. JAMA. 2008;300:1071–1073
  14. Fletcher SW. Chairman's summary of the conference. In:  Hager M editors. Continuing Education in the Health Professions: Improving Healthcare through Lifelong Learning; 2007 Nov 28-Dec 1; Bermuda. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation; 2008;http://www.josiahmacyfoundation.org/documents/Macy_ContEd_1_7_08.pdfAccessed March 10, 2008
  15. Cervero RM, He J. The relationship between commercial support and bias in continuing medical education activities: a review of the literature. June 2008;http://www.accme.org/dir_docs/doc_upload/aae6ecc3-ae64-40c0-99c6 4c4c0c3b23ec_uploaddocument.pdfAccessed June 30, 2008
  16. ACCME Annual report data. Chicago, IL: Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, 1998; 2007;http://www.accme.org/index.cfm/fa/home.popular/popular_id/127a1c6f-462d-476b-a33a-6b67e131ef1a.cfmAccessed September 22, 2008
  17. Hennekens CH, Buring JE. Epidemiology in Medicine. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company; 1987;
  18. Seligman M, Goodrich A. Physicians' perception of bias in CME among commercially supported vs non-commercially supported CME. Poster presentation at: CME Congress 2008; May 29-31, 2008; Vancouver, BC. Poster P88(10358).
  19. Mueller PS, Hook CC, Litin SC. Physician preferences and attitudes regarding industry support of CME programs. Am J Med. 2007;120(3):281–285
  20. Association of American Medical Colleges, Baylor College of Medicine. The scientific basis of influence and reciprocity: a symposium. Washington, DC: Association of American Medical Colleges; 2007;https://services.aamc.org/Publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=Product.displayForm&prd_id=215&prv_id=262Accessed May 25, 2008
  21. Katz HP, Goldfinger SE, Fletcher SW. Academia-industry collaboration in continuing medical education: description of two approaches. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2002;22:43–54

 Funding: The study was funded by Medscape, LLC.

 Conflict of Interest: Julie Ellison and Jing Wang disclose that they are employed by Medscape, LLC. George Lundberg and Destry Sulkes disclose they were employed by Medscape, LLC at the time of the preparation of the manuscript. George Lundberg is currently a Consulting Professor, Stanford University, and Distinguished Consultant, Physicians Advocates, Berkeley, Calif. Charles H. Hennekens discloses that he receives investigator initiated research grant support from Bayer to Florida Atlantic University; serves as an independent scientist either as Chair or member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Boards or as an advisor to: Actelion, Amgen, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Dainippon Sumitomo, Food and Drug Administration, General Electric, GlaxoSmithKline, National Institutes of Health, Sanofi-Aventis and UpToDate; and serves as a speaker for National Association for Continuing Education, PriMed, International Atherosclerosis Society, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer.

 Authorship: The work is original and the authors meet the criteria for authorship, including acceptance of responsibility for the scientific content and writing of the article.

PII: S0002-9343(09)00413-6

doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.02.026

The American Journal of Medicine
Volume 122, Issue 9 , Pages 875-878 , September 2009

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