A revised Code of Conduct implemented by West Virginia University's Health Sciences Center will forbid students, faculty and staff from accepting gifts from representatives of pharmaceutical and medical device makers.
It is an appropriate step to limit the undue influence over current doctors and future medical professionals and to ensure objective decision-making is in the best interest of patients.
The new policy was unanimously approved by the deans of the four health schools.
"We are committed to an uncompromising adherence to our public trust," Christopher C. Colenda, M.D., WVU Chancellor for Health Sciences, said in a release.
This should be an important goal to one of West Virginia's leading health care providers.
There should be no room for bias when doctors write prescriptions. The existence of any gifts, however small, no doubt influences the decisions of physicians.
Many of those gifts aren't so small. Bringing a doctor lunch week after week, for example, will eventually create a definite conflict of interest and an improper relationship.
In fact, the Pew Prescription Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts that promotes consumer safety, reports Big Pharmaceutical spends more than $20 billion annually on marketing drugs.
According to a study by Dr. David Grande in the 2010 Journal of General Internal Medicine, there is one medical sales representative for every five doctors. Further, 94 percent of doctors receive gifts from pharmaceutical companies, yet only 9 percent believe those gifts influence their decision-making.
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