Should the pharmaceutical industry be involved in continuing medical education?

Abstract

Introduction: In July 2020, a draft bill was introduced in Spain's Congress which proposed that continuing medical education be funded exclusively by the Spanish government, barring involvement from private entities.

Aims: This work aims to gather physicians' and pharmacists' opinions on this draft bill, learn what they think about the funding of continuing medical education and possible conflicts of interest.

Methods: This work is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted via voluntary anonymous surveys aimed at physicians and hospital pharmacists.

Results: Four hundred thirty-five surveys were analyzed, 59.8% of which were from women. Of the respondents, 87.6% were specialist physicians and 77.2% were part of a specialist department. A total of 55.2% did not agree with the draft bill while 92.4% agreed that the government and private institutes should subsidize training for their workers. Furthermore, 52.4% disagreed that each professional should pay for his or her own training while 14% agreed they should. A total of 19.8% have felt uncomfortable when a course or conference has been paid for by another entity and 74.5% believe that the involvement of private entities in funding does not influence prescribing.

Conclusions: The majority of those surveyed did not agree with a draft bill aimed at prohibiting the pharmaceutical industry from funding continuing medical education. Nearly all agreed that the government and private institutions should fund training for their workers. In general, those surveyed did not find conflicts of interest in their relationship with the industry.

Keywords: Conflictos de interés; Conflicts of interest; Continuing medical education; Ethics in prescribing; Formación médica continuada; Industria farmacéutica; Pharmaceutical industry; Ética de la prescripción.