8/14/08

Studying with Big Pharma

The American Board of Internal Medicine ratifies a core of medical knowledge in which the qualified internist is supposed to demonstrate proficiency. I am using MKSAP to study - it's a series of study guides produced by the American College of Physicians. Before the table of contents, the contributors are listed, together with their disclosed involvement with (meaning: compensation by) pharmaceutical companies.

It'd be asking too much to eliminate pharm-phunded contributors from ostensibly nonpartisan guides which reflect the best available consensus of our profession (that would be...legitimate!). Nor do I think it's likely that their contributions will be vetted by a pharm-free referee (that would be...adequate!). In the absence of these strategies, it would be nice - paradoxically - if those medications mentioned in the text could be listed on first appearance by brand name and manufacturer. Otherwise how are we to know which contributor is putting a golden shine on the clinical evidence?

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:56 PM

    Have you read the book Our Daily Meds (http://www.ourdailymedsthebook.com), by Melody Petersen ?

    Great and very important book.

    Would be curious to know what you thought of it.

    ReplyDelete