The Article in Brief

Practicing family physician and ethicist Howard Brody, MD, PhD, contends that because visits with pharmaceutical representatives are time-consuming and because the representatives serve interests which often are at odds with those of patients, physicians should refrain from meeting with them. Brody argues that spending time with representatives in a way that preserves professional integrity would require both refusing to accept their gifts and spending a great deal of valuable time double-checking their information to correct for the bias which may be present in representatives’ presentations. He contends that given how busy most physicians are, the vast majority of physicians could better serve their patients by spending their time in other ways.