Altilab2005 - Distance Education Blog

Oh, those crazy kids.

The American Medical Student Association has just unveiled its first-ever scorecard of med schools to see which ones meet the group's standards for keeping a healthy distanceOh, those crazy kids.

The American Medical Student Association has just unveiled its first-ever scorecard of med schools to see which ones meet the group's standards for keeping a healthy distance - pun intended - from big pharma's sales reps. The ranking is based on school policies.

"It is important that we work to keep our medical schools and teaching hospitals free of the influence of pharmaceutical companies," says AMSA national president Jay Bhatt. "PharmFree medical students become PharmFree doctors and that commitment to evidence-based medicine benefits our patients and our colleagues."

The PharmFree campaign encourages med schools and academic medical centers to develop policies that limit the access of sales reps to their campuses and prohibit med students and docs from accepting gifts of any kind from the reps.

A med school gets an 'A' for a "comprehensive policy" that restricts sales reps from having access to both the medical school campus and the academic medical center. Conversely, an 'F' is awarded for not having any policy or discussion, or the school has decided not to form a policy. Or if students are "encouraged to interact" with industry reps.

Just six schools received the highest grade:

• Stanford University School of Medicine
• University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
• University of Michigan Medical School
• University of Vermont College of Medicine
• Yale University School of Medicine

o 8 schools received a grade of B
o 23 schools received a grade of C+
o 13 schools received a grade of C
o 8 schools received a grade of C
o 19 schools received a grade of D
o 40 schools received a grade of F

Click on the scorecard link to find your alma mater.

The AMSA press release;
Background on the PharmFree campaign.