Doctors warned to back away from freebie buffet

While it's good advice that health professionals need to be discerning and critical of drug rep sales pitches, I don't think anyone intentionally ever put patients at risk for free lunches.

By the way, I recently heard of an innovative way for physicians to handle those honorariums they receive from drug companies. One physician I met donates all of his speaking fees to a fund for graduate students that are engaged in research projects.

From the Canadian Press:
Doctors and pharmacists need to learn to say no to free lunches, gifts and bad information peddled by the promoters of new drugs and medical devices, say medical students and advocacy groups.

Misleading promotion can be a significant threat to health and needs to be taken more seriously, they say. As evidence, they point to how doctors swallowed the marketing hype about the wonders of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and the safety of painkiller Vioxx. ...more