Notable Resources
FOR "PHARMA-FREE" MEDICAL INFORMATION:
EBP is published by the Family Physicians Inquiry Network (FPIN), a non-profit consortium of family physicians dedicated to answering clinicians' questions with the best possible evidence without the bias of industry support.
Independent Drug Information Service
RxFacts, the Independent Drug Information Service (iDiS) is an innovative program designed to provide physicians with an evidence-based, non-commercial source of the latest findings about the drugs they prescribe.
Newsletters published by The Medical Letter, a nonprofit organization, offer critical appraisals of new drugs and comparative reviews of older drugs. The editorial process used for both publications relies on a consensus of experts to develop prescribing recommendations that are completely independent of the pharmaceutical industry.
NFL's mission is to encourage health care providers to practice medicine on the basis of scientific evidence rather than on the basis of pharmaceutical promotion. It discourages the acceptance of all gifts from industry by health care providers, trainees, and students. Its goal is improved patient care.
PharmedOut is an independent, publicly funded project that promotes evidence-based medicine by providing news, resources, and links to pharma-free CME courses.
The Prescription Project is led by Community Catalyst in partnership with the Institute on Medicine as a Profession. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project seeks to eliminate conflicts of interest created by industry marketing by promoting policy change among academic medical centers, professional medical societies and public and private payers. In addition the Project will advance state and national level policy solutions.
ORGANIZATIONS:
American Medical Student Association
AMSA, with a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the U.S.
The Archimedes Movement is a grass roots movement that seeks to maximize the health of the population by creating a sustainable system which reallocates the public resources spent on health care in a way that ensures universal access to a defined set of effective health services.
Committee of Interns and Residents
CIR is the largest housestaff union in the country, representing more than 12,000 residents in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Institute on Medicine as a Profession
The Institute seeks to build professionalism as a field of study, analyzing its past and present successes and failures in shaping physician behavior and public policy. It also looks to make professionalism into a force that will guide the attitudes and activities of physicians, policy analysts, public officials, and consumers.
FOUNDATIONS:
The California Endowment's mission is to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians.
The Fund supports independent research on health care issues and makes grants to improve health care practice and policy.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving health and health care, RWJF supports training, education, research and projects that strate effective ways to deliver health services, especially for the most vulnerable among us.