Washington, D.C., February 21, 2006 - Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., president of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), issued the following statement today in response to the recent call for the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals to take the lead in eliminating conflicts of interest between physicians and the pharmaceutical and medical device industries:

"At its February meeting, the AAMC's Executive Council examined the recommendations published in last month's Journal of the American Medical Association aimed at minimizing the potentially adverse impact of gifts and other blandishments from drug and medical device makers on the missions of academic medical centers. The council responded favorably to the thrust of these recommendations and voted unanimously to form a high-level task force to build on the association's previous work to provide guidance on managing conflicts of interest.

The task force will be charged to 1) examine, especially, the current interactions that drug and device makers have with the educational mission of medical schools and teaching hospitals, and 2) bring forth recommendations expeditiously for implementing safeguards to ensure that industry marketing efforts do not undermine the objectivity of educational programs or otherwise bias the evidence-based decision making of physicians.

In order to maintain the public's trust and protect patients' interests, it's imperative that medical educators and the medical profession establish more effective policies and procedures to minimize conflicts of interest."

Dr. Cohen was a co-author of "Health Industry Practices That Create Conflicts of Interest, A Policy Proposal for Academic Medical Centers," which appeared in the Jan. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 129 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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