Taking action against industry influence

The continuing medical education (CME) provider Medscape has withdrawn a set of courses on smoking cessation sponsored by the tobacco company Philip Morris International (doi:10.1136/bmj.q948).1 The decision came after an investigation by The BMJ that uncovered PMI’s funding and after widespread concern among health professionals about the tobacco industry’s influence on medical education (doi:10.1136/bmj.q830).2One of the accredited CME courses did not suggest stopping smoking when advising a smoker who wanted to reduce his cancer risk. Instead the series focused on non-smoking alternatives, such as e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and snus. The push to encourage healthcare professionals to recommend these options corresponds with PMI’s commercial interests, because, as the investigation points out, it sells non-cigarette nicotine products.Corporate interference in healthcare is nothing new, and the tobacco industry’s use of its power and funding to deny or manipulate scientific evidence, lobby political leaders, influence health policy, and use scientists and other experts to…
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