Restoring Health to the Pharma-Physician Relationship

An article and commentary recently published in PLoS by Emma D"Arcy of www.myphid.com in the U.K. and Ray Moynihan of the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, posed the provocative question; can the relationship between physicians and big pharma companies be healthy, and if so, what are the "best practices" for transparency? The authors have different opinions, and both make good points.

Interestingly, at least two social networking sites are attempting to create an open community linking the two groups and facilitating communication: http://www.myphid.com/ and http://www.medcrowd.com/.

Physicians need to be able to see bias in company written information. That doesn't mean, though, that information supplied by a manufacturer is without value. D'Arcy calls the ability to cut through hype or bias "promotional literacy."

AMS