The Massachusetts House of Representatives has once again voted to repeal the state's gift ban, which regulates interactions between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) urges the Massachusetts Senate to support the ban that clearly translates into better patient care.

Research continues to show that eliminating gifts and the misleading information sales representatives bring into hospitals, schools and academic medical centers, promotes evidence-based care for patients. Gifts are designed to influence doctors to prescribe more drugs and more expensive drugs and have often become a substitute for objective medical evidence.

"Gift bans and other conflict-of-interest policies establish appropriate relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical and medical device companies," says AMSA National President Danielle Salovich. "As a state known for its innovation and leadership in medicine and health care, Massachusetts must continue to uphold high standards of patient care and ensure that physicians are practicing non-biased, evidence-based medicine."

"Senate President Therese Murray, it is critical that you and the entire Senate uphold the gift ban as a way to provide quality, affordable patient care for everyone," continues Salovich.

Supporters of the ban, including AMSA, strongly advocate the elimination of all pharmaceutical marketing gifts including meals, coffee mugs, pens, and anything else that unnecessarily increases the cost of health care. Since 2002, AMSA has called for a comprehensive ban on gifts and all marketing efforts to medical professionals as part of its the PharmFree campaign (www.pharmfree). AMSA's PharmFree campaign has educated and trained thousands of medical students across the country to interact professionally and ethically with the pharmaceutical industry.

Source:
American Medical Student Association