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Presentation at a Workshop on Professionalism In Clinical Practice held at Princess Noura University, Riyadh on 12 February 2020. By Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK). MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Chairman of the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee, King Fahad Medical City
CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
} Financial or
non-financial benefit that affects professional judgment and practice.
} Do small gifts
affect the doctor’s judgment and prescription habits?
} Are physicians
influenced to add medicine to the hospital formulary?
} Do gifts affect
physician reporting of research results?
WHAT
PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES OFFER PHYSICIANS:
} Free drug samples.
} Expenses for
attending conferences.
} Payments as
consultants.
} Payments for
giving lectures.
} Payments for
research.
} Drug company
representatives give drug information? Accurate? Biased?
SCENARIO
- 1:
} A physician
involved in a multi-center clinical trial and receiving substantial financial
compensation was told by the pharmaceutical company to terminate the study and
he never asked for the reason. What do you think could be the underlying
reason?
SCENARIO
- 2:
} A researcher was
offered a fully paid conference package with his family when he published a
paper favorable to the drug being introduced by the pharmaceutical company. The
next year he published an unfavorable report about another drug of the company.
No conference package was offered and his wife was asking him why they did not
go overseas this year. Explain.