Ed Silverman at Pharmalot recently wrote a great post on the ethical challenges inherent in Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs. He says CME lies at
the delicate intersection where drugmakers, doctors and money all meet, which explains why so many politicians, consumer advocates and academics complain about corruption. The issue haunts drugmakers even as they scramble for ways to educate docs about their meds.
Bottom line: Big Pharma buys doctors off to get them to promote their products at supposedly neutral educational sessions.
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Cary,
This week — July 10 to be precise! — the Pharma Marketing Talk podcast features an interview with an interview of Daniel Carlat, a professor at Tufts Medical School and editor in chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report, who characterized pharma-sponsored Continuing Medical education (CME) as “a new twist on that well-known instrument of corruption, money laundering.”
Your readers can get more information about listening in as well as submitting comments or questions by joining the discussion in the Pharma Marketing Events Forum (click here).