Stanford University announced Tuesday a new policy barring doctors affiliated with the university from accepting gifts, including drug samples, from representatives of pharmaceutical and biomedical companies.

The new policy applies to physicians who teach at the Stanford School of Medicine as well as those who practice at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. It also bans industry representatives from patient care areas and medical school facilities except for in-service training on devices and equipment by appointment only. Industry supported educational activities at Stanford facilities or involving Stanford personnel will be allowed only under well-regulated conditions.

"We do not want industry dollars to have the potential to influence how we train people or give clinical care, and I think this document sets out ways of minimizing this potential," Stanford medical school professor Dr. Harry Greenberg said.

The dean of Stanford's medical school, Dr. Philip Pizzo, said the new policy is in response to growing public skepticism about the relationship between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries.

"In recent years we have witnessed an erosion of the public trust in the profession of medicine and even in the value of science," Pizzo said.

"Part of that is related to the market forces that have increasingly converted medicine from a profession to a business, but a significant factor has also been the perception that physicians and scientists may be accepting gifts and gratuities from industry at the very time that the cost of drugs is skyrocketing."

Stanford joins Yale University, which adopted a similar policy last year, and the University of Pennsylvania, which adopted one earlier this year. Pizzo expects more university medical schools and science departments will follow in the near future.

"It is my hope that the stance being taken by Stanford will serve as beacon of responsibility for the medical and scientific professions," Pizzo said.

— Bay City News Service