[e-drug] Drug company sponsorship could easily be replaced

[E-drug <e-drug@healthnet.org>]

E-drug: Drug company sponsorship could easily be replaced
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BMJ 326:1163 (31 May 2003)

Drug company sponsorship of education could be replaced at a
fraction of its cost 
Ray Moynihan 
Washington, DC 

The head of the main medical education accrediting body in the
United States says that many commercially sponsored educational
events could be run at a fraction of their cost, without unnecessary
extras such as expensive lunches and entertainment. 

The chief executive officer of the Accreditation Council for
Continuing Medical Education, Dr Murray Kopelow, said, "It's
possible that a significant reduction in the amount spent on an
educational event would not result in a significant loss in
educational opportunity." 

More than half of the $1.4bn spent on accredited continuing
medical education in the United States is now funded from
commercial sources, including drug companies and device
manufacturers, and concerns are growing that the boundaries
between education and promotion have become blurred. 

The powerful accreditation body is currently reviewing the national
rules on commercial support, to try to manage the growing
entanglement between sponsors and educators and to provide
unbiased curricula. The review has made it clear that much
commercial support for education is not actually spent on
education. 

Dr Kopelow, a paediatrician before he became an education
executive, cited a recent example of more than $100 000 of
commercial support being directed at a two hour long "educational
opportunity" for 100 people. "Maybe only $20 000 was spent
bringing speakers, hiring the space, and advertising it," he said. "A
lot of other funds were spent on amenities, visual aids, more
promotion, meals, and entertainment." 

He continued: "The quality of the educational opportunity is
dependent on how well designed the education is and how well
matched it is to the needs of the learners. The quality of the
amenities and the meal are not critical to that." 

Some institutions have already reduced their dependence on
commercial support. At the Chicago Medical School of Finch
University of Health Sciences, psychiatrist Frederick Sierles
replaced company sponsorship with internal departmental funding
when he took over responsibility for education four years ago. "Now
we have an annual budget of just on $8000 to cover payments to
invited lecturers and speakers," said Dr Sierles, a member of the
reform group No Free Lunch, which advocates greater reliance
among doctors on unbiased sources of information that are free
from commercial influence. 

Dr Kopelow contends that commercially supported education can
be unbiased, but he welcomes the move to funding that is more
independent: "Anything that enhances independence is a valuable
development, and that strategy is fulfilled by making an event free
of commercial support." 

Responding to calls from organisations such as No Free Lunch to
move away from drug company funding of education altogether, Dr
Kopelow floated the possibility of a "blind trust," whereby
companies could contribute to a national pool of funds that are then
distributed to educational providers. 
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