TITLE:
Physicians and Conflicts of Interest
AUTHORS:
Deborah Pimentel, Maria-Jésia Vieira, João Pedro Declerc F. S. Neves, Manoel Juvenal da Costa-Neto, Laís Costa Souza Oliveira
KEYWORDS:
Ethics, Physicians, Conflicts of Interest
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Clinical Medicine,
Vol.5 No.16,
August
21,
2014
ABSTRACT: In medical
practice, the most commonly observed conflicts of interest are the ones
existing in the relations between professionals and industries linked to health
or between the former and health services. These relations are no longer a
partnership in search of the best to be offered to patients and tend to take up
a commercial role, in a seduction game where, each one, in their own manner,
seeks benefits. The purpose of this study is to analyze the existence of these
conflicts of interest, in an exploratory and qualitative study, with physician
focal groups. The results were grouped in two categories: benefits received by
physicians and the justifications provided by them for the establishment of
these partnerships. The most common benefits are: percentages over orthoses and
prosthetics received by the industry; discounts and credits on rent or
condominium fees for exam indications and procedures; rewards offered by the
pharmaceutical industry for the indication of their products. Physicians have pointed
out as main determinants for ethical missteps that involve conflicts of
interest, the character and family formation as well as the lack of
denunciations. The fact that efficient and widespread laws for resolution of
conflicts of interest do not exist makes it necessary to recognize their
existence with mechanisms of management and transparency, perhaps as the only
way to avoid negative interference in physician behavior.