The Summit on Physician-Industry Collaboration III

As the summit moves from framing the discussion to getting into the nuts and bolts of physician-industry collaboration practices and principles, some interesting points have emerged:

·         Participants mentioned health societies that have refused to allow industry-connected speakers at their conferences for fear of running into issues of bias and conflict of interest.  This policy, they pointed out, closes out vital avenues of information.

·         There has been robust progress among different industry sectors, companies and academic institutions in creating guidelines and principles governing collaboration.  This work has, however, led to great variability in principles from organization to organization.

·         One health industry leader pointed out that healthcare is one of a shrinking number of industries in which the United States is still the global leader.  In order to maintain that edge, and continue to improve life expectancy, a robust partnership between the medical professional and industry is necessary to move quality innovations to the marketplace.

Watch for more updates….