BELIEFS AND PRACTICES OF EMERGENCY-MEDICINE FACULTY AND RESIDENTS REGARDING PROFESSIONAL INTERACTIONS WITH THE BIOMEDICAL INDUSTRY

Study objectives: To examine emergency medicine resident training and understanding of general bioethics and resident and faculty attitudes and behavior regarding professional interactions with the biomedical i ndustry. Design: Two companion questionnaire surveys. Setting: Annual resident in-service examination and written director survey with telep hone follow-up. Participants: Emergency medicine residents and program directors. Interventions: Chi2 analysis was used for questions involv ing relationships among variables with dichotomous or categorical resp onse. An analysis of variance or Pearson Product Moment Correlation wa s calculated for questions with continuous variables. Measurements and main results: The surveys were completed by 1,385 of 1,836 (75%) resi dents and 80 of 81 (99%) residency directors. On average, residents re ceive eight hours of bioethical instruction per year but believe that they need 12 hours per year. Seventy-five percent of residents believe that company representatives sometimes cross ethical boundaries. The amount of resident understanding of bioethical concepts correlated wit h the number of hours of bioethics training they received. A sensitivi ty to bioethical conflicts index was correlated with the residents' be havior. Conclusion: There is wide variation in beliefs and practices r egarding the interaction between emergency medicine residents and dire ctors and the biomedical industry. Our results suggest that residents need training regarding conflicts of interest, accepted standards of p ractice, and dealing with potential conflicts with the biomedical indu stry.