Many medical students feel inadequately prepared to avoid negative influence from industry and feel inadequately educated on conflicts of interest, a recent study found.1 “Physician researchers are commonly intertwined with industry. We decided it would be educational to survey medical students on their relationship with industry, since they have had the least exposure to potential bias,” says Edmund Tamas Takata, the study’s lead author and a medical student at New York Institute of Technology’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Takata and colleagues surveyed 466 medical students at seven U.S. medical schools about their views toward industry conflicts of interest in medical research. “Perhaps most surprising was the proportion of students who received some amount of a gift from an industry representative, which was nearly one in four students,” says Takata.
The majority of students, regardless of class year, agreed that physician researchers should refrain from participating in industry relationships. Of students who had research experience, clinical students were more likely to look for conflicts of interest than preclinical students and were more likely to consider whether an author’s conflicts were relevant to the publication. Many (42.7%) students felt inadequately educated on conflicts of interest. Most (65%) felt that medical school should take a role in guiding how students interact with industry.
Most students believed having stock or ownership would be very likely to bias investigator research and believed that receiving food or beverage would be unlikely to bias research. Nearly half of students did not feel that readers would be able to judge to what extent an author’s conflicts of interest influence research. Medical students emphasized the importance of medical school education in guiding student interactions with industry.
All medical professionals should be educated on how to assess the quality of research by understanding proper research methods and common limitations that can lead to biased studies, state the authors. “Students and medical professionals should be made aware that research can be biased, and should not be trusted simply at face value,” Takata concludes.
REFERENCE
- Takata ET, Eschert J, Stafford K, et al. Attitudes towards conflicts of interest in medical research: A survey of US medical students. Med Sci Educ 2024;34:429-437.
Many medical students feel inadequately prepared to avoid negative influence from industry and feel inadequately educated on conflicts of interest, a recent study found.
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