Initiatives

Comprehensive conflict-of-interest policies:  AMSA helps students advocate for, develop, and implement strong industry-relations policies at their academic medical centers.  Our annual PharmFree Scorecard evaluates and grades the conflict-of-interest policies at every US medical school in a variety of domains.  The Scorecard can be used as a policy database and comparative tool when drafting new policies.

Legislative solutions:  AMSA lobbies for legislation at the state and federal level that increases the transparency of industry relationships, reduces conflicts of interest, promotes evidence-based practice, and increases global access to essential medicines.

Global access:  AMSA seeks to educate medical students on the the issue of access to medicines. Specifically, AMSA seeks to connect  the market-driven practices of pharmaceutical companies to both domestic issues (conflicts of interest, marketing) and global issues (access to medicines, neglected disease research).

PharmFree Curricula: AMSA is currently developing a project to help schools integrate training on issues surrounding industry interaction (e.g., the psychology of influence, ethical and practical issues surrounding conflict of interest in medicine, the drug development process, how to critically evaluate industry claims) into their medical school and residency curricula.  This includes a menu of ready-made lectures/slides and other materials, as well as a list of faculty across the country who are willing to consult on curricular development.