This is not a gift

THE ISSUE

The Association of American Medical Colleges is urging medical schools to stop accepting "gifts" from drug and medical companies that may be tainting research and ethics.

If you've been suspicious of the cozy relationship between drug and medical companies and medical schools, your suspicions are well placed.

The Association of American Medical Colleges, an influential organization that sets the tone for the nation's 129 medical schools, proposes banning the cozy relationship, which has included company representatives ghost writing research papers for professors.

In an era where the lack of ethics in government and business is making world headlines, the proposed ban comes as a breath of fresh air - and an eye-opener about the laxity of ethics at all levels of American society.

Most medical schools don't have strong conflict of interest policies, according to Rob Restuccia, executive director of the Prescription Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to eliminating conflicts of interest in the medical profession. But he said the association's report holds the potential to transform how medicine is taught. Most medical schools follow the recommendations of the association, which could set a much-needed new standard.

A report issued by the Association of American Medical Colleges, along with its call for new conflict of interest standards, states that medical companies for decades have provided faculty and students free food and gifts, offered lucrative consulting arrangements to ranking teachers, and ghost-written research papers for professors.

"Such forms of industry involvement tend to establish reciprocal relationships that can inject bias, distort decision-making and create the perception among colleagues, students, trainees and the public that practitioners are being 'bought' or 'bribed' by industry," the report states.

Well, if perception is nine-tenths of reality, the medical profession has some big problems.

Drug companies spend billions of dollars attracting doctors - more than they spend on research or consumer advertising, according to The New Yrok Times. That alone is enough to instill suspicion about the relationship between medical schools and drug companies.

It's hard to believe that medical schools would allow such lax standards of ethics. Sadly, the quest for endowments and research grants seems to have allowed ethical standards to erode to a dangerous level.