U.S. Medical Schools, Drug Makers Share S...((9 percent) a member of a board of direc...),Health

Chairs of clinical departments -- such as medicine and psychiatry -- were more likely to have served on a speakers' bureau than chairs of nonclinical departments -- such as microbiology.

Two-thirds of departments had relationships with industry, with clinical departments more likely than nonclinical department to receive research equipment (17 versus 10 percent), unrestricted funds (19 percent versus 3 percent), research seminar support (36 percent versus 13 percent), support for residency and fellowship training (37 percent versus 2 percent) and support for department-administered continuing medical education (65 percent versus 3 percent).

Clinical departments were also more likely to receive funds to buy food and beverages, support for professional meetings and subscriptions to professional journals.

"I have a master's degree in adult education and curriculum instruction and in my schooling, I don't ever remember learning that the first thing you do is pass out food sponsored by the companies whose products you're about to teach about," said Campbell. "A very large percentage of medical departments report getting money for food and beverages from drug companies. It's nice to have but, in the end, it's not necessary. It's not a principle of good education as far as I know."

More than two-thirds of department chairs felt that having a relationship with industry had no effect on their professional activities, while 72 percent thought that a chair engaging in more than one industry-related activity had a negative impact on a department's ability to carry out independent research.

"Now it's up to the policymakers and people who run medical schools," said Campbell. "They need to come up with some rules and they need to be new rules. I believe there's very little reasonable justification for why drug companies shou
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