Antonio Bradley reports:
A proposal to publicly name doctors who accept drug company payments and hospitality has the potential to breach doctors’ privacy rights.
The AMA has dismissed an option in the proposal to expose doctors who accept “tea and biscuit” benefits from the drug company reps, arguing that larger payments to doctors are of greater interest to patients.
The controversial proposal has been put out for debate by the pharmaceutical industry representatives group Medicines Australia, which plans to publish details of payments to health professionals relating to prescription medicines from 2016 onwards.
Read more on Endocrinology Update.
It struck me as odd that the pharmaceutical industry would be the ones pushing for greater transparency. If they are concerned about public trust, why not just stop making payments to physicians altogether other than research support, which the physicians would be obligated to disclose themselves?
You can read their transparency principles and working model here.