283 doctors resurveyed on pharma gift influence — SkimNews
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- Researchers resurveyed 283 physicians drawn from a 2011 cohort of more than 1,300 medical students and residents to track how their interactions with pharmaceutical representatives have changed over time.
- Drugmakers have historically offered physicians free meals, samples, gifts, and speaking fees — practices long studied for concerns they may unduly influence prescribing habits.
- The follow-up analysis compared the original 2011 responses to an updated survey conducted roughly two years ago.
- The source indicates results suggest the topic of pharma-physician financial relationships is likely to remain contentious.
Why it matters: A longitudinal resurvey of the same physician cohort over more than a decade offers rare evidence on whether sustained scrutiny over drugmaker meals, samples, gifts, and speaking fees has measurably changed prescribing behavior — and the source itself signals this debate isn't going away.
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