ArticleAnnals of family medicine
The company we keep: why physicians should refuse to see pharmaceutical representatives.
Article in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of physicians' prescribing: a systematic review.PLoS medicine · 2010Pooled it
- Use of atypical antipsychotics in nursing homes and pharmaceutical marketing.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2015Trial
- Assessing the effect of educational intervention on pharmaceutical promotion: a follow-up study among medical students from Pakistan.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Assessing the effects of online educational intervention on pharmaceutical promotions: a pre-post study among medical and pharmacy students in Pakistan.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Professionalism perspectives among medical students of a novel medical graduate school in Malaysia.Advances in medical education and practice · 2016Article
- The high costs of "free" drug samples.Clinical and translational gastroenterology · 2014Article
- Approach to hypertension among primary care physicians in the West Region of Cameroon: substantial room for improvement.Cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy · 2014Article
- Big Pharma: a former insider's view.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2013Article
- Knowledge, attitude and skills before and after a module on pharmaceutical promotion in a Nepalese medical school.BMC research notes · 2012Article
- Evaluation of rationality of promotional drug literature using World Health Organization guidelines.Indian journal of pharmacology · 2010Article
- Modern Practice Era: The Purpose of Physician's Sample.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2009Article
- General practitioners and pharmaceutical sales representatives: quality improvement research.Quality & safety in health care · 2007Article
- Educating health professionals about drug and device promotion: advocates' recommendations.PLoS medicine · 2006Article
- A cross-sectional evidence-based review of pharmaceutical promotional marketing brochures and their underlying studies: is what they tell us important and true?BMC family practice · 2006Article
- The characteristics of conflict of interest in the doctor's pharmaceutical representative Relationship.La Tunisie medicaleArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Whether physicians ought to interact with pharmaceutical sales representatives (reps) is a question worthy of careful ethical analysis. The issue presents a challenge to both professional integrity and time management. Empirical data suggest that interactions with pharmaceutical reps increase the chances that the physician will act contrary to duties owed to the patient. Ideally, a physician might both interact with reps and also do the research necessary to counteract the commercial bias in their messages. But a physician who actually did that research would, in turn, be devoting a good deal of time that might better be spent in other activities. The counterargument, that one is obligated to see representatives to obtain free samples to best serve one's patients, can be shown in most practice settings not to be compelling. Physicians ought to refuse to visit with representatives as a matter of both professional integrity and sensible time management.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.