Professionalism and physician interactions with industry.
Many gifts from industry to physicians and medical organizations serve important and beneficial functions. However, the spiraling cost of health care is resulting in increasing governmental and medical scrutiny of legal and ethical issues concerning relationships between commercial companies and physicians. Professional oversight bodies are updating standards concerning the ethical responsibilities of physicians. This article presents a broad framework for understanding the professional and legal responsibilities of physicians when interacting with industry. Physicians have unique responsibilities based on the "fiduciary" nature of the patient-physician relationship and specified laws regarding health care. Physicians must protect the best interests of patients, with clinical decisions free of undue influence. Physicians have special obligations related to receiving gifts from industry or receiving payments that may be construed as "kickbacks" or fraud. To ensure that gifts do not compromise (or seem to compromise) professional judgment, physicians should generally not accept personal gifts from industry and consider accepting only those that primarily entail a benefit to patients, are not of substantial value, and have no "strings" attached. After reading this article, the reader should be able to describe the impact gifts have on physicians' behavior, the privileges and obligations of physicians, and conflicts between professional obligations and personal gifts.
Collins
Jannette
J
Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, WI 53792-3252, USA. j.collins@hosp.wisc.edu
D016265:Conflict of Interest / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D037921:Gift Giving / Q000941:ethics; D007221:Industry / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D007400:Interprofessional Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States