Influence of Industry on Continuing Education

In November 2007, the Macy Foundation held a conference discussing continuing education in the health professions. Themes which were discussed included the relevance of continuing education (mainly in the form of lectures) to daily practice and clinical issues as well as the need to use the internet and technology in novel ways. In addition, the influence of industry on continuing education was discussed. The summary of the conference included this statement:

"In a free-market system, commercial entities, such
as drug and device manufacturers, have a clear
responsibility to shareholders to gain market
advantage and generate a profit, while health
professionals have a moral responsibility to
provide safe, high quality care for their patients,
based on valid scientific findings. The two
responsibilities are fundamentally incompatible.
Even if bias could be avoided, the potential,
and the perception, are ever-present. Companies
with billions of dollars at stake cannot be expected
to be neutral or objective when assessing the
benefits, harms and cost-effectiveness of their
products, for they are in the legitimate business
of gaining market advantage and want clinicians
to use and prescribe their products."