Industry Support and Professional Medical Associations
- Walker L. Ray, MD;
- Robert L. Addleton, EdD bob@physiciansinstitute.orgPhysicians' Institute for Excellence in MedicineMedical Association of GeorgiaAtlanta
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY
- CONFLICT OF INTEREST
- DERMATOLOGY
- DRUG INDUSTRY
- EDUCATION, MEDICAL, CONTINUING
- EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
- MEDICAL DEVICES
- SOCIETIES, MEDICAL
- SURGICAL EQUIPMENT
To the Editor: In their Special Communication, Dr Rothman and colleagues1 made a number of suggestions to control the real and perceived conflicts of interest encountered in PMAs. Regarding industry support of conferences and other educational meetings, they recommended that “each PMA might establish a CME committee whose members, free of all industry ties, would have the responsibility to distribute unrestricted, educational grants from industry.”
Such a model already exists and has been active for more than 2 years. The collaborative grants model developed by the Physicians' Institute for Excellence in Medicine (PIEM, a subsidiary of the Medical Association of Georgia) does just that.2 Grants are solicited from industry; in turn, these are distributed through a request-for-proposal process to 14 state medical societies. A committee of physicians in each society decides which of the applications from their state should be sent forward to PIEM for a final decision. …
