A survey conducted by MDlinx earlier this month came up with some shouldn't-be-unexpected results: That a quarter of the docs surveyed say they're seeing the quality of their continuing medical education activities decrease as pharma pumps fewer dollars into commercially supporting CME. Two-thirds didn't notice any change, and a scant 9 percent thought quality was improving, according to an article in Medical Marketing & Media. Most notably on the decline was faculty, they said, though they also said it was harder to find the education they needed, and that they had to pay for more of it themselves.
This quote at the end of the article is really interesting, I thought: [Stephen Smith, chief strategist, MDLinx] called the perceptions of lesser quality an unintended consequence of the increase in regulation on pharmaceutical companies' communications and their resulting pull-out from CME. “We've squeezed everything toward mediocrity to prevent abuses.”
