eAlert Thu, 06/14/2007 - 12:00 58a380f8-c6da-4afd-9d4c-d5ac5d2e02a8

<p>According to a study in the <em>New England of Journal Medicine,</em> 94 percent of physicians in the U.S. have some type of relationship with the pharmaceutical industry--from receiving drug samples or food in the workplace, to being reimbursed for professional meetings, to receiving consulting fees.<br><br>The authors of <a href="/cnlib/pub/enews_clickthrough.htm?enews_item_id=28784&return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecommonwealthfund%2Eorg%2Fpublications%2Fpublications%5Fshow%2Ehtm%3Fdoc%5Fid%3D503434%26%23doc503434">A National Survey of Physician-Industry Relationships</a> document the often close links between physicians and the pharmaceutical, medical device, and other medically related industries, which vary according to type of specialty, practice setting, and other factors.<br><br>The study was coauthored by Eric G. Campbell, Ph.D., of the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) at Massachusetts General Hospital-Partners HealthCare System, and former Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellows Russell L. Gruen, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Melbourne, and James Mountford, M.D., of IHP, among others.</p>

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2007/jun/relationships-between-physicians-and-the-pharmaceutical-industry-abound