The American Medical Student Association recently gave the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and eight other medical schools across the nation an A grade for their strict conflict-of-interest guidelines.
The School of Medicine outlined stricter conflict-of-interest policies in 2006 directed at regulating the influence of drug industries, which have been estimated to spend up to $46 billion per year on marketing directly to physicians, according to a UCLA statement. In addition, more than 100,000 pharmaceutical sales representatives often offer gifts, free meals, drug samples and brochures to doctors.
“Marketing and other influences from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries have the potential to skew medical students’ future prescribing and care practices in ways that are not necessarily cost-effective nor in the best interest of patients,” said Mike Cheng, a first-year medical school student at UCLA who is also the co-coordinator of the UCLA chapter of AMSA.
Present relationships between pharmaceutical companies and the UCLA hospital include funding of drugs, patient care or other elements of any study, Cheng said.
The association integrates several factors into its scores, such as the curriculum of UCLA’s medical classes, control of drug samples and disclosure of budgets. These guidelines regulate the relationship between private researchers and industries, especially pharmaceutical companies, said Jack Ruley, AMSA’s PharmFree Scorecard director.
“UCLA’s strict gift ban really rose UCLA’s score from last year,” Ruley said.
These gifts are not limited to monetary donations and include pens, notebooks or even paying for a meal at a meeting.
“A gift could be anything that the receiver does not reciprocate with any action,” Dr. Levy said. “For example, someone could pay for my meals if I travel to be their guest speaker, but not if they want to invite me to lunch after a meeting.”
In November 2006, UCLA implemented a policy in which all industries are prohibited from giving gifts to any faculty, staff or students, said Dr. Gerard Levy, dean of the UCLA School of Medicine at the time of the policy introduction.
“UCLA’s policies on industry influence directly address the bias that monetary funding can bring to a research study,” Ruley said.
Marketing is also regulated by this same policy, as heavy marketing can influence the way drugs are perceived and may influence undue medication prescriptions, Levy added.
For example, sales representatives are not allowed in clinical areas of the hospital without an appointment, Levy said.
Employees and students now even have to undergo a mandatory training session to ensure that they are up to date in specific procedures for interactions with vendors.
UCLA’s policies were adopted by the entire UC system in 2007.
“UCLA has always sought to maintain high standards of ethics in its research, and this is simply another way to ensure that our patients receive the best care our facility can offer,” Levy said.