Do med students sweat the small stuff?
Do small gifts really change attitudes? That was the question researchers were after as they looked at two groups of medical students: one in an academic medical center where drug reps were allowed to troll the hallways with free stuff, and the other with strict vendor restriction policies in place. In their findings, published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, they found that fourth-year medical students at Miller school of Medicine at the University of Miami exposed to small gifts – specifically, Lipitor tchotchkes – had more favorable attitudes toward Pfizer’s Lipitor than their counterparts at Penn, an academic medical center with strong pharm-free policies in place. According to the study, “63.3% of students at Penn agreed that gifts and food from pharmaceutical sales representatives would influence their eventual prescribing in contrast to just 29.4% at Miami.” This story in the Globe and Mail looks at the implications of the Archives study, and another in the journ
