In addition to the gift, food and travel bans, the report recommended that medical schools should "strongly discourage participation by their faculty in industry-sponsored speakers' bureaus," in which doctors are paid to promote drug and device benefits.
It recommended that schools set up centralized systems for accepting free drug samples or "alternative ways to manage pharmaceutical sample distribution that do not carry the risks to professionalism with which current practices are associated."
It suggested that schools audit independently accredited medical education seminars given by faculty "for the presence of inappropriate influence." And it said the rules should apply to faculty even when off-duty or away from school.
Speakers' bureaus and drug samples are pillars of the industry's marketing operations, and many medical school professors have resisted efforts to restrict them.
Only a handful of medical schools now bar faculty members from serving on speakers' bureaus, so if this recommendation is widely adopted, it could transform the relationship between medical school faculty and industry, and it could change substantially the way medical education is routinely delivered.
The chief executives of Pfizer and Eli Lilly dissented from the report's recommendation regarding speakers' bureaus.
"We continue to believe that these types of programs, which are subject to clear regulations regarding their content, can be worthwhile educational activities," wrote Jeffrey B. Kindler of Pfizer and Sidney Taurel of Lilly.
David Beier, an Amgen senior vice president, wrote a letter that endorsed the report's recommendations but disagreed with some of its text "because we have a different view about the accuracy concerning representations about the motives of the participants in industry-academic interactions."
Ken Johnson of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said his group would review the report. "Providing physicians - and medical students - with timely, accurate information about the medicines they prescribe clearly benefits patients and advances health care throughout the United States," Johnson said.
Dr. Robert J. Alpern, dean of the Yale School of Medicine, said the university has no limits on participation in company speakers' bureaus, but because of the medical college association's report, "I'm thinking of taking on the speakers' bureaus."
