The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and the Pew Prescription Project have given Penn State College of Medicine a grade of ‘B’ on the recently published 2009 PharmFree Scorecard. The grade improves on the “Incomplete” mark given to the College in 2008 while its new conflict of interest policy was still in development.
The Scorecard evaluates schools on the strength of their conflict-of-interest policies governing pharmaceutical industry interaction with medical school faculty and students. The College of Medicine was one of 36 schools of medicine to earn a B grade. Only nine out of 149 medical schools evaluated earned ‘A’ grades.
“With exemplary policies regarding gifts, consulting relationships, P&T committees and travel to off-site events, [Penn State] College of Medicine has a solid overall conflict of interest policy,” the AMSA posted on its PharmFree Web site. AMSA also noted the College of Medicine “shared strong curricular materials,” which led to the B-ranking.
The full AMSA PharmFree Scorecard is available at www.amsascorecard.org.