Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

WASHINGTON — The Institute of Medicine — the nation’s most influential medical advisory group and part of the National Academy of Sciences – has said doctors should stop taking much of the money, gifts and free drug samples they routinely accept from drug and device companies, according to the New York Times.

The institute’s report is a stinging indictment of many of the most common means drug and device companies use to endear themselves to doctors, hospitals and medical schools, the Times reported.

“It is time for medical schools to end a number of long-accepted relationships and practices that create conflicts of interest, threaten the integrity of their missions and their reputations, and put public trust in jeopardy,” the report concluded.

In its report, the institute calls on medical professionals from university professors to family doctors to shun practices that have become commonplace in the past three decades.

The institute’s report is even more damning than a similar one released last year by the Association of American Medical Colleges, which proposed tough new rules to govern relationships between medical schools and drug companies, the Times said.

Many medical schools and societies tightened their policies following the association’s report. The institute’s report is likely to hasten that process.

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• Portage County: One suspected case of swine flu, one possible influenza (WKYC-TV)
• MetroHealth prepared if swine flu breaks locally (WCPN-FM)
• Pandemic preparedness money stripped from stimulus (USA Today)
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• First patients in United States receive innovative device to treat moderate heart failure (Reuters)
• Pfizer roundup: Lipitor sales fall; biotech chief exits (Wall Street Journal Health blog)
• GI Dynamics adds device to gut liner to increase weight loss (Xconomy Boston)
• Researchers find common genetic variations in autistic people (Los Angeles Times)
• Nursing home owes $6.5 million in patient death (Columbus Dispatch)
• China tackles massive health overhaul (Forbes/Oxford Analytica)
• Medco says profit rose 8 percent, revenue tops estimates on new clients and higher prices (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune/Associated Press)

Photo illustration from www.edflix.org.