Sponsored doctors told to stay accountable

Doctors must keep their integrity when undergoing education or training sponsored by pharmaceutical industries, experts say.

Doctors wanting to advance their knowledge on medical science are mostly forced to look for sponsorship to enroll in the Continuing Medical Education program, also known as the PKB, which may lead to a conflict of interest if the sponsors are pharmaceutical companies.

Doctors are required to enroll in the PKB to renew their practice permits. Re-registration is mandatory every five years so doctors are abreast of the latest medical developments.

The PKB is expected to help doctors prescribe the right drugs for patients. But for the pharmaceutical industry, the PKB is a chance to advertise its latest inventions to doctors.

A conflict of interest occurs when support from pharmaceutical companies means doctors lose their professional freedom due to a gratitude debt. The facilities provided by the industries sometimes tempts doctors to prescribe drugs produced by the sponsoring companies.

Iwan Dwiprahasto, head of the pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics division of Gadjah Mada University, said that doctors should be held accountable and understand that drug prescriptions should be based on the best scientific practices. He said that if the prescribed drugs were not supported by scientific research, doctors had failed to abide by their code of ethics.

“The profession’s association should also be able to control the doctors and also choose the industries that apply good manufacturing practices,” he said.

He said the Indonesian Doctors Association and the honorary council had yet to implement rules stipulating what amount was appropriate for sponsors to give as donations to doctors.

“I heard that Germany is the only country that applies this kind of regulation. With such a regulation, we can prevent any violation of the code of ethics. I think we can apply such a regulation because we already have the honorary council and the code of ethics,” Iwan said.

Head of the Medical Ethics Honorary Council (MKEK) Agus Purwadianto said that violations could occur both from the doctor and industry’s side. He said that while industries were often seen as the temptresses, there were doctors who asked to be tempted.

“Doctors are strictly prohibited to accept facilities in any form for drug prescriptions,” he said during a discussion held by the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Group (IPMG) on Tuesday.

Head of IPMG Luthfi Mardiansyah said IPMG had a code of ethics that regulated the facility for doctors, either for the PKB or as a speaker at seminars. He said that industries could sponsor doctors as long as they followed the code of ethics.