While the American Medical Association's House of Delegates vote concerning a proposed commercial-support ban was getting a lot of attention, the Association of American Medical Colleges quietly approved its own recommendations concerning pharmaceutical industry funding. The Report of the AAMC Task Force on Industry Funding of Medical Education to the AAMC Executive Council was approved by the AAMC executive council on June 19.

Two years in the making, the 42-page report includes several recommendations concerning CME. CME offices at academic medical centers should develop mechanisms to monitor activities to ensure compliance with the Accreditation Council for CME Standards for Commercial Support, the report states, and management of commercial support should be handled by one centralized CME office within an academic medical center.

The report also addresses physician/industry relationships, suggesting that AMCs should prohibit physicians and other faculty, staff, students, and trainees from accepting any gifts from industry, even those that are practice-related; and should discourage faculty from participating in industry-sponsored speakers bureaus and require full disclosure if they do.

For more on the report, see “Higher Standards,” Medical Meetings, June 2008, available at meetingsnet.com/medical meetings, under the heading “The Association of American Medical Colleges Calls for Tougher Policies about Industry/Physician Relations.” For the full report, visit www.aamc.org.

Related Articles:
The Association of American Medical Colleges Calls for Tougher Policies about Industry/Physician Relations