Attitudes and practices of medical graduates in Delhi towards gifts from the pharmaceutical industry.
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Date
2010-10
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Abstract
Pharmaceutical companies use a variety of strategies, including
gifts, to influence physicians. In December 2009, the Medical
Council of India amended the Code of Medical Ethics to ban
medical professionals from accepting gifts from pharmaceutical
companies. In view of this ban, it is important to find out the
magnitude and contours of the problem amongst Indian medical
professionals. We aimed to study, through an e-mail based survey,
the attitudes and practices of young resident doctors and interns
from two medical colleges of New Delhi regarding acceptance
of gifts from the pharmaceutical industry. We e-mailed the
questionnaire to 150 fresh graduates. We found that the majority
of graduates agreed with existing guidelines: they accepted low
cost gifts but considered expensive gifts unrelated to patient
welfare unethical. Despite the low response rate, this study is
important because data from India on attitudes and practices of
medical professionals regarding gifts from the pharmaceutical
industry are virtually non-existent.
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Citation
Sharma Vishal, Aggarwal Sourabh, Singh Harkirat, Garg Shashank, Sharma Alka, Sharma Rashmi. Attitudes and practices of medical graduates in Delhi towards gifts from the pharmaceutical industry. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. 2010 Oct-Dec; 7(4): 223-225.