Topic > Code of Ethics for Doctors in Healthcare - 1152

Marketers operating in the pharmaceutical industry have not pushed their products, which raises the ethical questions surrounding the profession of medicine. Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars every year researching, developing and marketing drugs. Every pharmaceutical company needs approval of its drugs from doctors and physicians, so it must ensure that doctors are treated well. According to the Pew Charitable Trust, in 2012 the pharmaceutical industry spent over $27 billion on marketing alone, with $24 billion of that on marketing to doctors. (Kessel, 2014) A further survey conducted by Deloitte shows that 35% of doctors accept a tip from pharmaceutical companies and 16% of doctors accept money to represent the pharmaceutical company at conferences and healthcare camps. (Kessel, 2014) The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education reports that pharmaceutical and medical device companies sponsored nearly one-third of continuing medical education (CME) opportunities for physicians in 2011. ((Barnett, 1989) Application of ACHE code of ethics to this type of issue can be discussed in the following points: a. Healthcare manager's responsibility towards the healthcare manager profession: healthcare managers should ensure that although prescription drugs must be prescribed accordingly, they cannot be influenced to prescribe them