June 04, 2007

The Devil on the Doctor's Shoulder

We have written before about Stanford banning even small gifts from pharma reps, the influence gifts have, and the JAMA article and recommendations on inappropriate gifts.

Now the LA Times has a piece by a family physician in Seattle talking about accepting the lunches and baseball tickets and other gifts from the drug reps. Interestingly, it's not necessarily a flattering piece, and highlights many of the issues that have been raised about the bias that these gifts create. But it also offers if not a sympathetic explanation of why a doctor would accept the gifts, an explanation that I'm sure many of us can relate to, even if we don't approve.
-Kelly Hills [hat tip to Birgitta Sujdak-Mackiewicz!]

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