Ethics Governance
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| Article - Abstract. To view full article click on the article title. | |
eMJA: Pharmaceutical companies and medical students: a student’s view To quote from Rogers’s article in this issue of the Journal, “There is growing debate about the ethics of relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession”.1 Nothing could be more true. However, if this debate is raging for doctors, then it is sizzling for medical students. While doctors might not have the time or the inclination to voice their opinions on the pharmaceutical industry publicly, Australian medical students seem to have both. The relationship between medical students and the pharmaceutical industry has been hotly debated by the National Council of the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) for years. Yet tangible outcomes and policy have been less palpable, evidence of just how complex this issue is. Medicines Australia has imposed self-regulation upon the industry through its own code of conduct (www.medicinesaustralia.com.au). This is an important document in various ways, but, most importantly, it sets practical boundaries within which the industry can ethically operate. So why should medical students bother tackling this issue? We don’t have script pads or the status to influence prescribing habits of those who do. Furthermore, with so many codes of conduct floating around, surely we fall under these somewhere? Surprisingly not. Medical students appear to occupy a loophole in an otherwise highly regulated environment. Codes commonly use the terms “medical professional” (health professionals who are unable to prescribe [eg, nurses]) and “non-prescriber” (people without degrees in health fields and who are unable to prescribe), but do not mention medical students. Full Article: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/180_08_190404/hut10183_fm.html |
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2006 Ethics-Governance.com |
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