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(HealthDay)—As part of the National Physician Payment Transparency Program and in compliance with a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the government will make information about financial relationships between doctors, teaching hospitals, and drug and device manufacturers publicly available on a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website, according to a report published by Kaiser Health News. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-health-industry-payment-publicly.html Health Thu, 02 May 2013 18:20:02 EST news286734837 Doctors who graduate from medical schools with an active policy on restricting gifts from the pharmaceutical industry are less likely to prescribe new drugs over existing alternatives, suggests a study published in BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-medical-school-gift-restriction-policies.html Medications Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:30:02 EST news278872252 (AP)—The federal National Cancer Institute says it's taking a fresh look at a troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting effort already being scrutinized by prosecutors and lawmakers in Texas. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-texas-cancer-probe-nci-scrutiny.html Cancer Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:10:01 EST news274716453 As the use of Twitter and other social media by physicians and patients rises, more and more physicians seem to forget to do what many consider crucial for building doctor-patient trust: disclose potential conflicts of interest. However, physicians are not entirely at fault: prominent medical societies have failed to lay out comprehensive guidelines for physicians on when and how to disclose a conflict of interest when utilizing social media. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-physicians-disclose-conflicts-social-media.html Other Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:44:52 EST news271921485 Conflict-of-interest statements made by physicians and scientists in their medical journal articles after they had been allegedly paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers as part of off-label marketing programs are often inadequate, highlighting the deficiencies in relying on author candidness and the weaknesses in some journal practices in ensuring proper disclosure, according to a study by international researchers published in this week's PLoS Medicine. Off-label marketing is the promotion by a manufacturer of a drug for use in a condition or age group, or in a dose or form of administration that has not been specifically approved by a drugs regulatory body; it is illegal in the United States. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-coi-declarations-off-label-drug.html Other Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:32:11 EST news263579521 Medical institutions have been under pressure to develop and implement policies to avoid conflicts of interest between physicians and pharmaceutical companies. In most cases, medical professionals who have a stake in the issues at hand craft the conflict of interest policies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-physicians-biased-medical-conflict-policies.html Other Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:11:53 EST news259323105 "Journals, professional associations, clinical guideline developers, and others need to worry not just that disclosure provides a band-aid to the real problem of the [conflict of interest] itself, but that any attempt to stem the trouble through disclosure policies may actually be worsening the problem," say the editors of PLoS Medicine writing in an editorial that discusses the response to a paper published in the Journal last month, which examined the financial conflicts of interest of members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) responsible for updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-disclosure-financial-conflicts-worsen-medical.html Other Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:00:01 EST news254505557 The American Cancer Society has revised its guideline formation process to achieve greater transparency, consistency, and rigor in creating guidance about cancer screening. The new methods align with new principles from the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) by creating a single generalist group for writing the guidelines, commissioning systematic evidence reviews, and clearly articulating the benefits, limitations, and harms associated with cancer screening tests. The new process is outlined in a Special Communication in the December 14, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-american-cancer-society-screening-guideline.html Cancer Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:25:12 EST news243015905 (AP) -- British lawmakers are reconsidering the country's approach to abortion, igniting a debate over whether clinics that are paid to carry out abortions should also be allowed to give advice to women unsure how to handle an unwanted pregnancy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-british-lawmakers-rare-debate-abortion.html Health Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:21:41 EST news234544884 A new survey of hospice care in the United States says that the rapidly growing role of for-profit companies in providing end-of-life care for terminally ill patients raises serious concerns about whose interests are being served under such a commercial arrangement: those of shareholders or those of dying patients and their loved ones. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-for-profit-hospice-industry.html Health Wed, 18 May 2011 11:09:11 EST news224935741 Canada needs an agency to investigate research misconduct, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-ensuring-research-integrity.html Other Mon, 09 May 2011 12:32:56 EST news224163148 Major philanthropic foundations in global health, which often influence and shape the international global health agenda, have links with food and pharmaceutical corporations that could constitute a conflict of interest to the foundations' philanthropic work, reveals a new analysis published in this week's PLoS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-corporate-links-global-health-foundations.html Other Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:00:52 EST news221850041