Numerous U.S. medical schools have improved their ethics policies in several key areas, according to a report card by the American Medical Student Association, Modern Healthcare reports.
Report Card Details
AMSA's annual PharmFree Scorecard grades medical schools on their ethics policies in several areas, including:
- Conflict-of-interest education;
- Continuing medical education sponsorships;
- Industry-related gifts;
- Scholarships;
- Sales representative access to personnel; and
- Speaking engagements.
Key Findings
This year, 140 out of 152 U.S. medical schools participated in the grading process (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 12/15).
AMSA found that:
- More than half of schools received an A or B score for their overall ethics policies, compared with 30% last year and 19% in 2008;
- One in five schools achieved better scores this year compared with last year; and
- 21 schools improved to a C or above (Knox, "Shots," NPR, 12/15).
Schools achieved the highest grades in the area of scholarship regulation, with 94 schools receiving perfect scores, up from 66 in 2009 and 29 in 2008.
Schools received the lowest grades for policies on speaking engagements, continuing medical education and sales representative access to personnel (Modern Healthcare, 12/15).
California's Performance
Overall, medical schools in California performed well in AMSA's report card on ethics policies. Schools in the state that received an overall A grade are:
- David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA;
- Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California;
- Stanford University School of Medicine;
- UC-Davis School of Medicine (Steinberg, Redlands Daily Facts, 12/15); and
- UC-San Francisco School of Medicine (AMSA report card, 12/15).
Meanwhile, Loma Linda University Medical School advanced from a grade of F last year to a grade of B this year (Redlands Daily Facts, 12/15).