While we recognize the important role the pharmaceutical industry plays in medicine, since our very first conference Psychiatry Review Course has maintained a policy of neither soliciting nor accepting any funding for expenses, administration costs, production of materials, or for any other purposes from the pharmaceutical industry.

Why do we feel so strongly about this? As CME providers, feel we should be held to a higher standard regarding pharmaceutical funding support that is currently the practice in medical education. CME providers have the potential to effect practice patterns of our colleagues in medicine, and the potential conflict of interest between educators and the therapeutics they teach is obvious, especially if there is financial dependence upon corporate groups with an interest in the very therapeutics being taught.

An all too common response to this issue in many (most!) CME settings, large and small, is to increase the dependence on pharmaceutical funding by soliciting funding from many different pharmaceutical corporations. The underlying assumption is that a long list of corporate sponsors obviates potential conflict or bias. At Psychiatry Review Course, we take a simpler approach....no drug money.

Period.

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