But other physicians see CME talks as a better alternative for physician education.
Dr. Jacqueline A. French, a professor of neurology at New York University and the president of the Epilepsy Study Consortium, said that the restrictions currently in place regarding the dinner talks make it very difficult to provide open and unbiased information.
Promotional talks do help to fill a gap in education. Dr. French, who does not give promotional talks, said that a cessation of the dinner talks would make it harder for physicians in private practice to get practical information about drug treatments. Generally, physicians in private practice don't attend grand rounds–type lectures, which are usually focused on the science behind a disease rather than on therapeutics. But restrictions on what physicians can say about off-label prescribing severely limit what can be discussed at a dinner talk, she said, making such talks a less-viable option.
The situation highlights the gap that exists in medical education, she said. Educators need to start thinking of creative ways to get information out to physicians so they can stay up to date on new therapeutics, Dr. French said.
Susan Chimonas, Ph.D., codirector of research at the Institute on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University, New York, agrees that providing medical education under the umbrella of CME is a better option. Although the authors of the open letter are well intentioned, Dr. Chimonas said, there are many proposals for better ways to organize medical education, and physicians would be better served by working toward that goal rather than trying to figure out how to tweak the industry talks so that they are “less offensive.”
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.