Among the comments on his post:

We re pushing this issue to the extreme at the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sooner or later the drug companies will say uncle and divert their marketing resources to consumer advertising. It s already getting harder to obtain industry support for CME…What will be next? Expert speakers at Grand Rounds? Meet the Professor sessions? Medscape? In fact, why not save a lot of money at these meetings and just bring in a medical librarian to lead the audience through Pub Med searches of various topics?

And from another gentleman:

The attempts to control pharma marketing are similar to attempts to control political spending. When you squeeze the balloon in one spot it just bulges someplace else. Next step the medical equivalent of 527 organizations?

From Medpundit, a blog by a family physician:

This is a much needed move, although it will probably make it all that much harder to find speakers for continuing education events. It will also put a damper on the exchange of ideas that flows at these meetings. Most doctors view speakers who promote their drug sponsor throughout a lecture with suspicion, anyways, although not all. However, given the way so many of these early ideas make it into the mainstream press as if they were well-founded treatment recommendations, thanks to press releases and invitations to health reporters to attend the conference, it’s a necessary change. The influence of the press on public perception of what is and isn’t good medicine can’t be ignored. Overall, the recommendations should improve the quality of physician - and public - medical education.

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