Rebuttal: Is CME a drug-promotion tool?: YES

Michael A. Steinman; Robert B. Baron

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Bias in CME
Glenn H Griffin

Published on: 15 November 2007

Published on: (15 November 2007)
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Bias in CME
Glenn H Griffin, Family Physician
Other Contributors:
I agree with Drs. Steinman and Baron. As a teacher of EBM and critical appraisal for over 10 years and a frequent attender of pharmaceutical company sponsored CME, I can say from first hand experience that even CME that is reviewed and approved by a responsible body such as the College of Family Physicians of Canada or the Academy of Family Physicians in the US often contains bias, usually in favour of the sponsoring ph...
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I agree with Drs. Steinman and Baron. As a teacher of EBM and critical appraisal for over 10 years and a frequent attender of pharmaceutical company sponsored CME, I can say from first hand experience that even CME that is reviewed and approved by a responsible body such as the College of Family Physicians of Canada or the Academy of Family Physicians in the US often contains bias, usually in favour of the sponsoring pharmaceutical company and sometimes presented in a pseudoanalytical way. Most of these biased talks are given by 'drop-in' specialists who often seem not to even recognise the bias that they demonstrate. The most minimally biased, accurate and objective presentation that I have been to in the past year was given by relatively 'local' family physicians and was sponsored by the CFPC (the topic was dementia). We need more presentations by family physicians for family physicians sponsored by family physicians.
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Competing Interests: None declared.