CME Without Big Pharma – Progress or Naivety?
It’s no secret that the pharmaceutical and medical device industries have been under scrutiny for offering biased continuing medical education (CME) to health care professionals.
The Institute of Medicine, who recently released a report, “Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions,” recommended this year that industry-supported CME eventually be discontinued. Most health care professionals likely have already noticed that free or inexpensive CME is getting harder to find.
I am all for improving the quality and objectivity of our CME. And, I can get by without the free pens and lunches. Within reason, I don’t mind paying more for my CME.
However, I can’t help but wonder if we are going too far by completely banning any industry-supported continuing education activities. It’s very easy to think simplistically about this issue, label the drug companies as greedy mega-powers who prey on our world’s health care professionals, and assume that good-riddance is the solution.
But, is it really that simple? If industry is not allowed to sponsor any more educational activities, then how will they be funded? They won’t. Most of the large conferences we’ve had over the past few years will cease to exist. The free online CME will completely disappear. This trend is already occurring. The choices for our continuing education will continue to dwindle. And, once our CME has been completely sanitized, will the quality improve? There is no evidence that it will.
Are you bothered by direct-to-consumer marketing? Just wait until the drug companies are completely shut out of CME. The marketing machine will just get larger and more aggressive.
I think that all all-out ban on industry support of CME is short-sighted. It smacks of our current health care reform situation: we want to have a lot of ideal things happen, but we haven’t thought of how we’ll pay for them. Let’s rethink this issue before we lose even more control over the practice of medicine.
What are your thoughts? Please share your comments.
Photo credit: kham at flickr
Medicine and industry need each other. If the ethcial purists prevail, and we have no industry support for education, then who wins? If CME conferenes disappear, is that better for the public? Physicians and industry need to collaborate on designing new devices and making other advances. Just because someone gets paid, doesn’t mean they’re on the take. It’s easy to morph into OperationOVERKILL. http://www.MDWhistleblower.blogpspot.com
Great points. I especially like the fact you referred to “ethical purists.” I’m all for being ethical, but the world is not black and white (despite the fact that many people still cannot accept or do not really understand that fact!). This same all-or-none mindset threatens our entire U.S. health care system. Thanks for your comments.