In a way, the “predation” of pharma companies on medical students on their home turfs reminds me a lot of the controversies surrounding the tactics of credit card companies on unsuspecting students on college campuses.

When there’s an opportunity….

We’re all familiar with the remedies both university leadership and even some states’ legislative bodies have enforced in the past in the wake of arrgessive marketing techniques by banks designed to incur long term loyalty (in the form of massively needless student debt) at the hands of those just looking for a “free lunch”.

Well, some medical schools are going a similar route with their student bodies, and the target is Pharma. (Full disclosure: yes I was a starving beneficiary of pharma companies’ largesse when it came to accepting my free luches…and pens, and textbooks, and…well…when you’re a starving med student — you’ll take what you can get.) The AMSA, the largest association of med students in the country, has taken to scoring medical schools based upon their policies with respect to approaching pharma marketing on their campuses.

Many proactive medical schools are even incorporating the lessons learned in this exercise as the basis for ethics courses in their curricula. Good move. After all, regardless of where med schools “score” on the AMSA ratings list on this issue, its awareness by students represents a kernel of knowledge from which a career lifetime of good ethics habits is fostered. | LINK

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