The Chronicle of Higher Education reports today on a JAMA piece concerning the “bombardment” of medical students with gifts and invitations to activities. In the study,
Eight hundred and twenty-six students responded to the 64-question survey. They answered questions about how often they received gifts or meals from drug companies and about whether they agreed with statements such as “It is sometimes OK for medical students to accept gifts and lunches from drug companies because most students have considerable debts and minimal income.”
Not only did most of the students say they accepted weekly gifts or activities from drug-company representatives, but most of them, nearly 70 percent, believed that such gifts would not affect their medical practices. Almost all of the students, 93 percent, said they had been asked or required by a physician to attend a sponsored lunch.
[thanks John Kaplan]