A physician in charge of planning who is a new member of the local ethics committee remembers the great response at last year s meeting, where attendees enjoyed free room service, hot tubs and golf. He wants a good turnout again this year, but doesn t want to raise registration fees. He also has ethical misgivings about what he should and shouldn t accept from industry. A fellow physician urges him toward ample corporate sponsorship.
Ethics are nice, but they just don t pay.
An audience member said that his chapter resolves these types of problems several ways. First, drugmakers and other vendors are allowed to sponsor booths and provide funds for chapter meetings, but all funds must be paid to the chapter, not directly to speakers. Promotions to physicians are a long string that s being pulled that increases the price of health care, he said. A physician from the United Kingdom explained that doctors there don t regard industry as the enemy, but as associates. Drug companies are allowed to give funds to organizations for educational meetings, he said, but they are not allowed to choose speakers or determine meeting content.