John Mack rails against pharma-sponsored CME. Realistically, if physicians had to pay to attend their own CME lectures, no one would go.
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{ 11 comments }
“Realistically, if physicians had to pay to attend their own CME lectures, no one would go.”
Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Wow . . . just wow . . . what a sterling “profession” medicine has become.
I think if I go to every Grand Rounds at my hospital for a year (which is free) then I can satisfy my CME for the year.
So that is my plan.
Of course, Big Pharma probably pays for half of those speakers, so what can you do.
Demand that hospital officials ban big Pharma from any freebies in the halls of your facility, that’s what you can do. Big Pharma’s influence over physicians is equivalent to lobbyists’ influence over elected officials.
My father was in politics and told me “politicians are like women who walk the streets and do favors for money.”
I swore off all “free” CME 4 years ago and only use CME that I pay for, on the grounds that he who pays the fiddler calls the tune and any “free” stuff in the end is nothing but progaganda. I must be some kind of freak because I payed for about 70 hours of category 1 last year. Mostly though puchased audio programs which is much cheaper than traveling to a meeting so I am still ahead.
If we are not adult enough to take responsibility for our own professional development-and to pay for our own pads and pens–then we have no right to expect autonomy as an independent profession.
uptodate is a very good (and as far as i know, NOT pharma-funded at all) resource that provides excellent clinical info.
The time spent on uptodate.com is logged by them & can be converted to cme credits.
Hey you…YES YOU! posting here…have you noticed that this site is supported by MedPageToday – w/c is supported by at least one big pharma: Merck?
I agree Uptodate rocks and is in IMO the true purpose of CME in the first place….learning how better to treat our patients in real time.
HEY YOU 7:59,
I guarantee you, no physician comes to this blog looking to obtain CME.
Thanks for picking up my post about doctors paying for their own CME.
The responses belie the contention that if docs had to pay, none would go.
Whatvere the solution, pharma has to get out of paying directly for CME content, even if it is regulated and at arms length.
Pharma can still support CME through advertising and exhibits at events that host CME. Advertising can even help make FREE CME possible like it makes TV sitcoms free. What about CME TV? I note that pharma companies in the UK want to start an all-pharma TV network. Why not an all-CME TV network? Like the Weather Channel?
Of course, I am only half serious about this. Advertising can corrupt editorial content as well (eg, advertisers can pull the $ from shows they don’t like). And physician-TV has been tried before and ever made it (perhaps because it could not compete with direct pharma support of live CME events).
The “problem” of pharma sponsored CME is insignificant in comparison to the lobbying that goes on in DC. Billions of dollars a year are used to buy votes of our elected officials who are supposed to be representing the “people” and yet THIS subject is an issue?
Hey, if Merck is willing to pay for something I would otherwise have to pay for on my own, while still paying down 200K in medical school debt, more power to them.
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