TORONTO, July 4, 2013 – Medical students are potentially often exposed to biased, industry sponsored and commercially driven information due to inadequate conflict of interest policies at schools, York University researchers say.
“We evaluated the conflict of interest policies of all the 17 medical schools in Canada and found that only one had relatively stringent policies and in 12 others, these policies were weak or nonexistent,” says Adrienne Shnier, a PhD candidate in York’s Graduate Program in Health, specializing in Health Policy and Equity, and the lead author of the study, Too few, too weak: conflict of interest policies at Canadian medical schools, published by PLOS ONE, a peer-reviewed online scientific research journal, July 4.
“The impact of biased education is seen in students as early as during clinical training in the hospital, through residency, and at the bedside, and can last their entire careers,” says co-author Dr. Joel Lexchin, a professor in the School of Health Policy and Management in York’s Faculty of Health.
Unless the policies are made stringent enough to regulate industry interactions with students and faculty, drug companies can play influential roles by offering training resources favourable to them, which can result in inaccurate diagnosis and limited treatment options for patients, the study concludes.
“Unrestrictive policies and poorly regulated areas such as drug samples, frequent visits by sales representatives, and speaking engagements by drug company representatives are the biggest concerns. Both faculty and students must engage in learning about and preventing relationships and ties to industry that lead to such conflicts of interest,” according to Shnier, who is also an intern with the Patients’ Association of Canada and a research Fellow with the Pharmaceutical Policy Research Collaboration.
Co-authors on the study also include: Kelly Holloway, a doctoral candidate in York’s Department of Sociology; Barbara Mintzes, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia; and Annemarie Jutel, Graduate School of Nursing Midwifery and Health, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
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Media Contact: Gloria Suhasini, York University Media Relations, 416 736 2100 ext. 22094, suhasini@yorku.ca
