A government surveillance will tell Congress Wednesday that the pharmaceutical industry and medical device industries, "one billion dollars of spending for medical education Spree is a threat to the opinion of doctors across the country.
U.S. Almost all doctors are required to take continuing education classes to maintain their medical certification. Professional societies like the American College of Cardiology and dozens of other conferences sponsored each year on the latest treatments.
Over the past 10 years, drug and device companies have increased their funding of such meetings for more than 300 percent, according to industry figures. The companies provide more than half of the $ 2.5 billion spent annually in medical education.
An inspector from the Department of Health and Human Services of the Senate will tell lawmakers today that tighter restrictions are necessary to keep the pharmaceutical companies to use that money to direct doctors to prescribe their drugs. While firms are not allowed to attend meetings, can shape the debate by pouring millions of dollars in choosing subjects, according to the inspector.
"The training needs to improve safeguards to preserve the boundaries that separate the teaching of marketing," says Lewis Morris, in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. Morris is the chief counsel for the HHS Office of Inspector General.
The Senate Aging Committee will hear from half a dozen other witnesses Wednesday, most of who are opposed to the industry funding for medical education. Committee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., Is pushing a bill that would require companies to disclose all payments to physicians over $ 100. Kohl and co-sponsor Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, we hope to include your payment Sol Medical Law healthcare bill taking shape in the Senate, which has been slowed by cost concerns.
The hearing comes as some of the most influential medical institutions start moving away from the company-funded medical education.
Earlier this year the American Medical Association said that medical education should ideally be funded by organizations that do not have a financial interest in the conquest of doctors – but stopped short of recommending a ban on industry money. In April, the government of the Institute of Medicine said that "a new funding system for medical education is necessary.
Morris will recommend an independent organization to distribute educational grants provided by the pharmaceutical industry, effectively creating a "firewall" between drug companies and the people who decide how the grants are used.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association said Tuesday it has not taken a position on the idea.
"Basically we have made to our members businesses to make decisions about how they allocate resources," said Diane Bieri, general counsel of the group. He noted that the group has revised its voluntary guidelines to recommend companies to maintain their departments of education separate divisions for sales and marketing, a distinction that did not exist in some companies.
The group members include Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., Eli Lilly & Co. and most of the world’s other major pharmaceutical companies.
If companies are willing to withdraw completely from the decisions about how their funds are used is unclear.
In the current system – which allows companies to direct funds to the issues involved in their products – companies can see a return of $ 3 in sales for every $ 1 spent on medical education, according to a study of the industry.
"Companies easily pay hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support" continuing education "for a very simple reason – to sell their products," says the president of the Cleveland Clinic cardiology, Dr. Steve Nissen, prepared in comments. "The industry-funded CME is not philanthropy, it’s marketing."
Nissen, a frequent critic of corporate influence in medicine, who argue that the pharmaceutical industry-supported conference on the latest – and often more expensive – treatments have contributed to the nation of the world health care costs.
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