- © 2008 Canadian Medical Association
Pharma gifts: The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have crafted a new voluntary guideline that asks member companies to stop giving doctors pens, pads, mugs and other trinkets. Restaurant meals on the sales representative's credit card are also frowned upon. Rather, the sales reps should bring lunches to doctor's offices, or have them catered. The revised Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals (www.phrma.org) does not disdain cash payments to physicians in the form of speaking and consulting fees, although such industry largesse was recently disavowed by the Association of American Medical Colleges due to the perception that industry handouts are influencing therapeutic decisions and compromising the medical profession's reputation (CMAJ 2008;178[13]:1651-2 and CMAJ 2008;179[3]:225-6).
Lab standards: The Canadian Association of Pathologists wrapped up its annual meeting in July 2008 by calling on the federal government to establish national standards and protocols for pathologists, as urged by experts in CMAJ (CMAJ 2008;179[2]:125-6 and CMAJ 2008;178[12]:1523-4). The association also released a 5-point action plan calling for “an appropriately resourced national system.” It also proposed mandatory certification for all laboratory tests and the creation of a national body to accredit labs.
MAPLES fallout: MDS Inc. has served Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. with notice that is seeking arbitration — and simultaneously filing a $1.6 billion lawsuit alleging negligence — for breaching its contractual obligations by pulling the plug on the once-ballyhooed, but since discredited Multipurpose Applied Physics Lattice Experiment (MAPLES) reactors, which had underpinned plans to ensure a long-term national supply of medical isotopes (CMAJ 2008;178[13]:1648 and CMAJ 2008;178[7]:813-4).