PharmFree

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PharmFree is an ongoing campaign begun in 2002 by the American Medical Student Association in collaboration with No Free Lunch to organize political activism challenging the practice of pharmaceutical gifting to students and physicians.

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[edit] Objectives

AMSA established PharmFree for reasons such as:

  • The practice of pharmaceutical gifting to students and physicians increases the costs of health care for patients and does not primarily serve patient interests
  • Medical students want to be honest with future patients about why a particular medication was prescribed without compromising personal and professional integrity.
  • Medical students want to treat future patients using modalities supported by the best existing clinical evidence, not carefully packaged advertising.

[edit] PharmFree Day

AMSA sponsors an annual National PharmFree Day, wherein discussion of pharmaceutical marketing tactics, film screenings, panel discussions, residency fairs and new campaign launches take place. PharmFree Day serves to allow medical students, residents and physicians alike to speak out against the pharmaceutical industry's biased marketing practices.[1]

[edit] Counterdetailing initiative

PharmFree launched its latest campaign, the Counterdetailing Initiative, in 2005, at its annual PharmFree Day event. The mission of AMSA's Counterdetailing Initiative is to:

  • Educate medical students about evidence-based medicine and evidence-based prescription practices
  • Empower medical students through activism through education about existing clinical guidelines
  • Introduce sources of unbiased and expert-reviewed information on pharmaceutical drugs to physicians
  • Share knowledge about the effect of pharmaceutical promotions on the prescribing habits of physicians

[edit] External links

  • AMSA.org - 'AMSA's PharmFree Campaign'
  • DoctorRW.blogspot.com - 'The hypocrisy of the American Medical Student Association', R.W. Donnel, (December 11, 2005)
  • MJA.com.au - 'The ethics of pharmaceutical industry relationships with medical students', Wendy A. Rogers, Peter R. Mansfield, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer and Jon N. Jureidini, Medical Journal of Australia, vol 180, no 8, p 411-414 (2004)
  • USNewsWire.com - 'Nation's Medical Students Resist Pharmaceutical Industry Temptations' (August 23, 2004)
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