Profession
Stanford changes rules on industry funding for CME
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 15, 2008
The Stanford University School of Medicine in August became the latest medical school to change how it handles industry funding for continuing medical education programs. Under the new policy, pharmaceutical companies and device makers can still direct funds to general clinical areas such as "medical, pediatric and surgical specialties" but cannot pick specific courses to fund.
The move comes on the heels of recommendations from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges on how academic medical centers can reduce potential conflicts of interest and bias in medical education. Five other medical schools have adopted similar policies, according to the Prescription Project, a group that advocates severing medicine's financial ties to industry. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has banned all industry support for CME.
At its Annual Meeting in June, the AMA House of Delegates referred for further study a report recommending a gradual end to industry funding of medical education.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/09/15/prbf0915.htm.
