Johns Hopkins University is jumping on the gifts ban bandwagon, following Massachusetts in outright forbidding its doctors from receiving most gifts from medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The school’s ban (PDF) bars doctors from receiving gifts, entertainment or food from medical device and drug companies..
And it locks the doors on sales reps, who are no longer welcome in patient care areas at Johns Hopkins’ medical school, hospitals and clinics and can only enter other areas at the express invitation of doctors or other personnel.
“One of the main thrusts of this whole policy is to try to remove the marketing component of academic-industry relations from the equation,” assistant dean Julie Gottlieb told the Journal‘s “Health Blog.”
As for those cushy consulting sinecures, paid gigs “without commensurate associated duties are considered gifts and are prohibited.”