• New York Times, Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:47 AM

The University of Michigan Medical School has voted to eliminate commercial financing for postgraduate medical education, meaning that it will no longer take money from drug and device makers to pay for coursework doctors need to renew their medical licenses, Natasha Singer and Duff Wilson report. The dean of the school, Dr. James O. Woolliscroft, says faculty members "wanted education to be free from bias, to be based on the best evidence and a balanced view of the topic under discussion."

Dr. Michael Steinman, an associate professor of medicine at the San Francisco V.A. Medical Center, feels there is an inherent conflict of interest when companies fund education. "The course providers have a subtle and probably unconscious incentive to put on courses that are favorable to industry because they know where their bread is buttered," he says.

But many doctors and some industry groups say that moves such as this will cut physicians off from knowledge about developments in their fields and that the current system has adequate checks and balances to prevent industry influence over course selection or content. "We are really not trying to increase prescriptions," says Thomas Sullivan, president of the medical education company Rockpointe Corporation. "It's more about giving better care."

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