I have been impressed by a 1999 study in JAMA which compared two Canadian 
medical schools. At one, students were permitted to accept free books, pens, 
meals, etc. At the other, not far away, the University put in place strict 
policies to stop the free gifts and minimize interaction between students 
and drug company reps. The researchers looked at the effects on the students 
from both schools after they had graduated and begun practicing medicine. 
What they found was - even though the students felt they were NOT influenced 
by the drug company gifts - was that the doctors who graduated from the 
first school continued to have frequent interactions with drug company reps, 
saw them as valuable and reliable sources of information and prescribed 
their products. As the head of the second school said "the drug companies 
don't throw their money away." The free gifts work.

In the case of free formula, I think the effect on patients of being given 
formula by the doctor - a respected health care professional - is also very 
significant. You do hear mothers explicitly say "my doctor gave me this 
formula for my baby so I know he thinks it is the best."

Teresa Pitman 

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