Briefly

Conflicts database: The New York City-based Institute on Medicine as a Profession has launched a publicly accessible database (www.imapny.org/coi_database/) identifying the conflict of interest policies of the United States' 125 academic medical centres in 12 areas, including pharmaceutical industry goodies aimed at influencing medical practice and speaker's bureaus (CMAJ 2008;178[13]:1651-2 and CMAJ 2008;179[3]:225-6). Organizers say the intent isn't to rank centres but note that among institutions that lack, or have weak, policies are such prestigious centres as Harvard University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

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Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Image by: Photos.com

Code down under: The Australia Medical Council has proposed that the nation's physicians adopt a new draft code of conduct (http://goodmedicalpractice.org.au/) that requires doctors to disclose whether they've been convicted of a crime or found lacking by another medical licensing body. The code obliges Australian physicians to “inform any medical authority with whom you are currently registered without delay if, anywhere in the world: you have been charged with or found guilty of a criminal offence; another professional body has made a finding against you or placed conditions on your medical registration.”

Citus, Altius, Fortius: A scant 6 athletes tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, well under the 27 miscreants who were nabbed at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece (CMAJ 2008;179[3]:219-22), or the 30–40 that International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge had forecast. Skeptics suggested the battery of tests now lags behind athletes' means of disguising drug use but World Anti-Doping Agency Director General David Howman surmised that the drop-off was in part a function of tough pre-Games testing, as over 60 athletes were precluded from even foraying to China because they had tested positive for drugs.

Investigation list: The United States Food and Drug Administration has moved to meet a legislative obligation to post a list of drugs whose safety is under investigation. The list, (www.fda.gov/Cder/aers/potential_signals/potential_signals_2008Q1.htm), culled from the agency's Adverse Event Reporting System, will be updated every 3 months. The FDA said that listing of a drug means only that it has “identified a potential safety issue, but does not mean that FDA has identified a causal relationship between the drug and the listed risk.”

Pay hike: The province of Ontario has reached a tentative 4-year agreement (www.oma.org) with its physicians that will see doctors earn a 12.25% increase in fees, including 3%, 2%, 3% and 4.25% hikes in each of the next 4 fiscal years. By the fourth, the increases will result in Ontario doctors receiving $9 billion annually, more than $1 billion over the existing fee arrangement.