Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums
  • My alerts
The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • RSS feeds
  • Follow cfp Template on Twitter
LetterLetters

Simplistic approach with ignorance of rural Canada

Brendan J. Hughes
Canadian Family Physician March 2019, 65 (3) 162;
Brendan J. Hughes
Lakefield, Ont
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site

I feel obliged to respond to the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s approach to managing its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.1

First, I think there is bias exhibited toward the generic industry, which has been shown to have many potential conflicts of interest and provides financial incentives to many in the greater pharmaceutical industry without providing any educational or research components.

Second, there are challenges to providing high-quality continuing medical education (CME) in rural areas. I think industry sponsorship has provided some solutions at times to bridge gaps that might not be experienced in more urban settings in this vast country. I think the College has increasingly put forth policies on CME that are alienating many rural CME opportunities.

Third, I look at advertising in Canadian Family Physician and note there are very few standards applied with respect to medical evidence; the dollars received seem to trump the high standards to which the College is supposedly trying to adhere.

Overall, I think there is a “holier than thou” attitude permeating the College. The rather borderline and simplistic attitude of Big Pharma being bad is quite insulting to at least some of the membership. Like most generalizations, this is likely unfair and overly simplistic. And I think the College has gone too far.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    Dr Hughes has received past honoraria from Servier, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Merck, and Lundbeck.

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada

Reference

  1. 1.
    1. Lemire F,
    2. Sisler J
    . CFPC’s managed relationship with the health care and pharmaceutical industry. Can Fam Physician 2019;65:80. (Eng), 79 (Fr).

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
  • Collections - English
  • Collections - Française

For Authors

  • Authors and Reviewers
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Permissions
  • Terms of Use

General Information

  • About CFP
  • About the CFPC
  • Advertisers
  • Careers & Locums
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Subscribers

Journal Services

  • Email Alerts
  • Twitter
  • RSS Feeds

Copyright © 2021 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Powered by HighWire