Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) statement on the relationship between professional medical associations and industry

Excerpt

Congress and others have called into question the propriety of professional medical associations (PMAs) and industry relationships [1, 2]. These relationships are critical to the continued development of new and better surgical devices and procedures for patients. Moreover, PMAs should work with industry in defined ways to educate physicians about new procedures and devices. Clear guidelines are needed to help structure these relationships. Overly restrictive regulatory oversight risks excessively constraining these relationships, detrimental to medical progress and possibly crippling information dissemination at PMA meetings. Politicians and editors of leading medical journals are advocating for regulation of these interactions to such an extent that these relationships will be severely truncated, and in many cases eliminated entirely. It is true that there have been examples of (financial) relationships between physicians and industry and even between PMAs and industry that have been inappropriate, especially where potential conflicts of interest were not revealed or well managed [3, 4]. These cases should not be used as the sole basis for excessive regulatory confinement. The involvement of physicians and PMAs with the development and deployment of new drugs, tools, and procedures has been integral to the progress realized by the medical profession in providing safer, higher quality care to patients; this is especially true of the roles surgeons fulfill in the development of medical instruments. …