MINNEAPOLIS, January 28, 2010 - The MMA Board of Trustees Saturday updated the MMA's policy stance regarding gifts and conflicts of interest between providers and pharmaceutical, medical device, or medical equipment manufacturers.

The policy, approved by the board, says that in the interest of professional ethics physicians should not accept gifts and that the MMA will support and work to further additional public reporting efforts.

Here is the policy, recommended by the MMA Medical Practice & Planning Committee, that the board approved.

1. In the interest of professional ethics, good medical practice, and responsible stewardship, physicians should not accept any gift from pharmaceutical, medical device, or medical equipment manufacturers and distributors.

2. The MMA will support efforts to make public all payments from industry—pharmaceutical, medical device, or medical equipment manufacturers and distributors—to health care providers (e.g., physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, etc.), researchers, health care institutions, professional societies, patient advocacy and disease groups, and providers of continuing medical education.

3. The MMA will work to be directly involved in the development of the requirements and standards for industry payment disclosure and in the development of uniform standards for the public reporting of information.

4. The MMA will support the establishment of a single, statewide resource for physicians to access timely, accurate, and unbiased information about pharmaceuticals (i.e., academic detailing-type program). Ideally, this service would be financed by fees on drug manufacturers and would not levy fees on physicians who access the resource.

5. MMA Policy 240.123 Physician & Pharmaceutical Industry Relationships is archived (see below).

"The Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) endorses the American Medical Association policy on the relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical, device, and medical equipment industries (E-8.061), and shall educate physicians in Minnesota and our patients about the fact that physicians, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, must work together to continue to improve patient care. The MMA shall also establish a dialogue with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Office of the Attorney General to help our MMA sustain its mission of advocacy on behalf of physicians to help ensure access to all available forms of information for all physicians in the state of Minnesota. (HD-R 407-2006)"