Pharmaceutical industry-sponsored meetings: good value or just a free meal?

Although the role of the pharmaceutical industry in continuing medical educ ation (CME) has been debated for many years, industry CME funding continues to increase. Because of concern about the educational quality of industry CME, the Hunter Postgraduate Medical Institute (HPMI), an independent Newca stle and Hunter Valley CME provider, evaluated the use and quality of indus try CME as reported by rural and urban general practitioners, physicians an d psychiatrists. Furthermore, clinicians were asked if they supported incre ased industry-funded independent CME. Sixty-two per cent of general practit ioners and 71% of psychiatrists attended at least three industry-organized meetings each year, compared with 24% of physicians. Twenty-five per cent o f general practitioners attended five or more such meetings. Industry meeti ngs were judged to be of good to excellent quality by 81% of generalists, 7 9% of physicians and 87% of psychiatrists. All clinical groups ranked the t opic and then speaker as the most important reason for attending, with CME points, venue and the sponsor ranked lowest. Eighty to 90% of doctors suppo rted a greater role of industry-funded independent CME. Despite the absence of current data on the use and perceived benefits of industry CME, these p reliminary results suggest that industry CME is playing an increasingly imp ortant role in clinician education. However, many clinicians and industry r epresentatives support a greater role by independent postgraduate organizat ions in industry-sponsored CME.