BMJ Masterclasses – very pricey lunches indeed
We have been having the usual discussions recently about how we can provide medical education without Big Pharma sponsorship. The BMJ covered this in some details a few weeks ago and it is a regular discussion point. The consensus seems to be that we need to keep moving away from any sponsorship, perhaps form smaller learning networks and buy our own lunches.
The BMJ run a series of educational events for doctors known as BMJ Masterclasses.
The closest to me is the Manchester General Update for General Practitioners. I went to one a couple of years ago and I would guess there was anything between 200-300 paying punters there. Possibly more. And those punters are largely paying over £200 for the one day.
I remember being appalled by the presence of reps when I went a couple of years ago. You can see on the programme that Pfizer and Merck-Serono are still sponsoring symposiums. Why is this event still sponsored by drug reps? On the back of a fag packet calculation there could be as much as £60000 income generated – is this insufficient to bring them into profit? There is an impressive array of Galácticos that speak at these glorified lectures but just how much does Mark Porter charge??
Check out the link to their sponsorship policy. Oh dear, nothing there. Never mind, you can still check out the link for sponsors. One of the things they say is:
The BMJ Group is a leading provider of learning products in the medical market and provides you with the opportunity to give your product maximum exposure and reach doctors in a highly targeted way.
Nice to see the BMJ Group really leading the way. I wonder what BMJ columnist Des Spence, self-confessed ex-Pharma Junkie and No Free Lunch UK spokesperson makes of it?
Good questions. I paid >A$1000 a few years ago for a 5-day family planning course here in Australia and was surprised to find that lunch every day was sponsored by a drug company. After the course I questioned whether this was necessary. The course organiser took the issue to the organisation responsible, and now they are running the course without pharma sponsorship.
Change is possible. Keep up the good work.
We pay for our lunch every other day of the week or weekend, why aren’t we paying for it on days when we’re studying?
I don’t have any drug reps in my corner, lunches are banned in our Trust, drug reps no longer can access clinicians. If clinicians say no to this then as Brett says above, change can be effected.
My colleague and I went through the patient information leaflets so “kindly” provided “free” to our surgery today, and chucked out all those that were sponsored by companies – we now have a very bare rack and plenty of room for the genuine NHS and charitable information.
I think a lot of people are making real efforts at an individual level to change their practice. It seems an enormous pity that a leading organisation, in medical education terms, such as the BMJ Group, that has enormous influence nationally, if not internationally, is not showing us the way.
Leaving their sponsorship policy page conspicuously blank speaks volumes.
I just came across this insightful debate. You mentioned that you went to a BMJ Masterclass in 2008 but you did not say whether you have found it useful in your practice which I will be most interested in. I have noticed the link to the sponsorship policy is broken, hence an empty (error) page – here are the correct links:
http://masterclasses.bmj.com/sponsorship/guidelines
http://masterclasses.bmj.com/sponsorship
Personally, I didn’t find it that useful. But I suspect that is largely related to my learning preferences – I can see why it suits the needs of many clinicians. I notice the Masterclasses have really been highlighting the interactive elements – presumably to try to entice those like me who are left cold by the core didactic teaching strategy.
Thanks for the links.
Thanks for your feedback which I find helpful.
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