Promotional talks are useful for the drug companies, but they tend to undermine public trust in the medical profession and put physicians into the uncomfortable position of being drug marketers, she said.
“I suspect that this practice is sticking around because it works for industry and it works for the people who participate in it,” Dr. Chimonas said. “If you take it away, industry will move on and figure out other ways to influence and physicians will find other ways, that are probably better, to stay up to date,” she said.