Financial relationships and business transactions between physicians and
the health care industry are common. These relationships take a variety of
forms, including payments to physicians in exchange for consulting services,
reimbursement of physician travel expenses when attending medical device and
pharmaceutical educational conferences, physician ownership in life science
company stocks, and the provision of free drug samples. Such practices are
not intrinsic to medical practice, but as the Institute of Medicine
described in its 2009 report, these relationships have the potential to
produce positive collaborations that improve patient care and public health,
and most physicians view it as “ethically proper to accept items ranging
from drug samples to a lucrative consultantship.”
However, financial relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical,
medical device and biotechnology companies can also create negative
influences on physician judgment that compromise patient care and jeopardize
the public’s trust.