What Is the Connection Between Physician Relationships with Industry and Patient Care?
Partnerships between physicians and the medical industry are invaluable for development of devices and procedures that improve patient care, but they also have the potential to negatively impact patient care when there are financial interests that are not appropriately managed. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) updated their guidelines in 2020, which are now called the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. All financial relationships between physicians and ACCME-defined ineligible companies should be disclosed and evaluated. When financial relationships exist, the potential for bias can be mitigated by determining the relevance of the financial relationship to the educational/scientific content. If the nature of the financial relationship is relevant to the planned presentation, peer review of the content for appropriate balance is important to ensure integrity and independence in educational material. SAGES has fully embraced the importance of rigorous evaluation of financial relationships to safeguard the safety and quality of patient care provided by SAGES members.
