A review of pharmaceutical industry-sponsored medical education: Ten key recommendations for stakeholders

Abstract

Debate about the pharmaceutical industry's involvement with medical education has reached new levels of acrimony, fuelled by intensified scrutiny of industryphysician relationships. This heightened concern makes apparent the need for clearly articulated standards and vigilant adherence to them among funders, sponsors, faculty and recipients of medical education. The best practice of medicine requires collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry, which develops and brings new medicines to the market; the practitioners who prescribe the medicines to better serve their patients; and those who develop educational activities. Adoption of and adherence to, defined recommendations will maintain this essential channel of communication and help achieve the shared goal of benefiting patients and enhancing the practice of medicine. This paper examines the methods by which medical advances are adopted by practitioners, exploring the key role played by opinion leaders. The authors also discuss the rules and regulations affecting US and European medical education activities and differentiate between promotional and independently accredited educational activities.Recommendations are included to stimulate discussion of best practices in medical education in order to improve patient care.

Conceptualisation of branding: strategy based on the Indian pharma sector

“…Again opinion leader management programmes must evolve to help industry overcome different product branding challenges. Medical practitioners respond to new clinical interventions by seeking information and opinions from peers and opinion leaders rather than assessing the scientific merits by themselves (Dumovic and de Vries, 2004). Opinion leaders are perceived as technically competent, authoritative, independent, dedicated and esteemed members of a local group.…”

“…Opinion leaders are perceived as technically competent, authoritative, independent, dedicated and esteemed members of a local group. Industry plays a role in development of these guidelines by supporting the meetings of experts or opinion leaders (Dumovic and de Vries, 2004). New industry trends are focusing on highly complex algorithms, careful planning as well as a heavier focus on managing the relationship with the opinion leader ( Johnson, 2008).…”

“…These include peer-reviewed literature, practice guidelines of a particular drug, CMEs, conferences and symposia, and interaction with opinion leaders, etc. Currently, the pharmaceutical industry plays a role in physician education affected through each of these methods (Dumovic and de Vries, 2004). Physicians in the twenty-first century are faced with the challenge of updating their knowledge base of medical advances (Lim et al, 2010).…”

“…It is well established that pharmaceutical companies direct their new drugs promotions at the most influential physicians first -the "thought leaders" in the profession; if they are persuaded, their opinions have an impact upon the new product's acceptance by others in the field. For opinion leader management, first, companies are completing influence mapping to validate and segment thought leaders into tiers comprising, global, national, regional and local (Dumovic and de Vries, 2004). Indian companies do IJPHM 7,2 it by eliminating the first factor, i.e.…”

The pharmaceuticals industry in trouble

“…These organisations focus on the marketing activities of drug companies and prohibit companies from giving doctors inducements to prescribe their products in the form of payments, lavish gifts, or hospital equipment [30].…”