MEDICINE STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST BETWEEN DOCTORS AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.1592542216091

• Palavras-chave: conflict of interest, medicine, pharmaceutical industry.

• Keywords: conflict of interest, medicine, pharmaceutical industry.

• Abstract:

  Introduction: Conflicts of interest can arise in different areas of everyday life and one of them is in the profession. Knowing how to separate personnel from professionals in the medical field is essential for the patient to benefit from the best possible treatment. Under this bias, medical schools are not always prepared to deal with such a situation. Goal: the present study aims to show the perception of medical students about the relationship between doctors' conflicts of interest and the pharmaceutical industry and how it can interfere with patients. Methods: exploratory, cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach with a sample of 230 medical students from a Federal University in the Northeast. Results: in relation to the total number of respondents, about 52.8% of the students declared they were aware of the pharmaceutical industry's dissemination strategies and 19% believe that the main strategy is through advertisements, but 90.6% declared that they did not feel secure in the information disclosed in these advertisements. Regarding receiving free drug samples, 93% of students consider it ethical and more than half (63%) consider it normal to receive gifts, in addition to the fact that 54% have already witnessed teachers accepting benefits. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, transparency in the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical industries is necessary, as well as ongoing ethical debates in educational events and in medical schools, as students are faced with such conflicts from an early age.