Medicine is a service industry, the product of which is health care, and its practitioners deserve remuneration. But to some, the notion of medicine as a road to personal wealth is an example of free-market economics gone awry.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):780-786. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.msoc1-1508.
Physicians should recognize the influence that small gift-giving has on prescribing patterns and consequently interactions between pharmaceutical representatives and medical students and residents should be limited.
A physician argues that accepting free drug samples leads to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients and urges other physicians to find different ways to help low-income patients save money on their prescription medications.
Stanford University Medical School established a positive partnership with a pharmaceutical company to offer an industry-sponsored resident elective course in a way that minimizes conflict of interest and has been accepted by the ACGME.
A bioethicist argues that children with Down syndrome should not be subjected to cosmetic surgery to change their appearance unless they are at the age and have the capacity to make the decision for themselves.
A physician outlines the role of the ACCME and its responsibility to successfully manage the boundary between continuing medical education and the commercial support, commercial interests, promotion and advertising related to it.