Professional Medical Organizations and Commercial Conflicts of Interest: Ethical Issues

Abstract The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has recently been criticized for accepting a large corporate donation from Coca-Cola to fund patient education on obesity prevention. Conflicts of interest, whether individual or organizational, occur when one enters into arrangements that re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of family medicine 2010-07, Vol.8 (4), p.354-358
Main Author: Brody, Howard, MD, PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Conflict of Interest
Drug Industry - ethics
Ethics, Medical
Humans
Internal Medicine
Physicians - ethics
Public Health - ethics
Reflections
Societies, Medical - ethics
Trust
United States
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Summary:Abstract The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has recently been criticized for accepting a large corporate donation from Coca-Cola to fund patient education on obesity prevention. Conflicts of interest, whether individual or organizational, occur when one enters into arrangements that reasonably tempt one to put aside one's primary obligations in favor of secondary interests, such as financial self-interest. Accepting funds from commercial sources that seek to influence physician organizational behavior in a direction that could run counter to the public health represents one of those circumstances and so constitutes a conflict of interest. Most of the defenses offered by AAFP are rationalizations rather than ethical counterarguments. Medical organizations, as the public face of medicine and as formulator of codes of ethics for their physician members, have special obligations to adhere to high ethical standards.
ISSN:1544-1709
1544-1717
DOI:10.1370/afm.1140