The question is posed:  Is it a conflict of interest to attend a conference
funded in part by a known WHO Code violator, Nestle?  That answer is: No,
unless it is Yes.  Hmm. What does *that* mean?

Big Pharma has -- for years -- used staggering amounts of money to
influence medical education, both at the university and professional (i.e.
CEU) levels.  Go get gobsmacked over at Dollarsfordocs.org, set up by the
Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalists at ProPublica.org.

The costs are sometimes paid outright:  "Here, go to this conference.
 We'll foot the bill."  Other times, the funding is more subtle:  "Here,
take this bucket of money for your school [conference].  Do what you want
with it.  If you don't mind, just put our name on the building [conference
brochure] that is going up."  Either way, the commercial vendor is seeking
to develop a relationship with healthcare providers -- and to engender a
sense of reciprocity, which carries with it a very intense sense of
obligation that crosses all cultures and societies. Reciprocity means:  "If
you scratch my back I'll scratch yours."

In the short term, it is *not* a conflict of interest, or even a WHO Code
violation, to attend a conference IF the attendee is paying her own way AND
refuses while she is there to accept any "gifts" from commercial vendors
(likes branded pens, lanyard, mugs, meals, thumb-drives yadda yadda yadda).

But the next question is -- what is your hard-earned money, spent on
required continuing education, buying you? An impartial and balanced
presentation on topics, by researchers with no bias in the outcome of their
work? Or a well disguised infomercial for the commercial vendor?

The kicker is that -- when it is being "done right" (she said cynically)
you, as the healthcare provider attendee, are blissfully unaware of the
commercial messaging in which you are being bathed, all in the name of
education. In this sense, it IS a conflict of professional interest ...
because studies have demonstrated -- repeatedly -- that medical (and
prescribing) behaviors CHANGE after healthcare professionals have been
"serviced" (their term, not mine) by industry.

My favorite treatise on this topic is by Lo & Fields, Conflict of Interest
in Medical Research, Education and Practice
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22942/.  Freely available on the web.
 Skim the abstract if reading the whole book doesn't ring your chimes.

-- 
Liz Brooks JD IBCLC FILCA
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

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