Purpose: To describe change in residents' attitudes toward gifts from and interactions with industry and to measure the effects of a formal educational workshop on changes in perceptions.
Method: At the University of Chicago, 118 internal medicine residents completed an observational survey and took part in a controlled intervention across three years (2001-2004) of residency. Four cohorts of residents completing the program in 2004-2007 participated. The intervention was an interactive educational workshop, including reviews of literature and guidelines, and three videos demonstrating routine resident interactions with pharmaceutical representatives. Residents graduating in 2005 were the intervention group and residents graduating in 2004 the comparison group. Analysis of variance and linear regression models were used to determine the relationship between variables.
Results: Residents perceived lunch sponsored at noon conference and pharmaceutical representative brief talk at noon conference as increasingly appropriate over their training period (p < .02). Residents perceived pens, notepads, pocket antibiotic guides as increasingly appropriate and tickets to sporting events, round of golf, and travel/registration for national conference as increasingly inappropriate (p < .05). The intervention group was more likely to rate only one item, lunch at noon conference, as less appropriate (p = .042).
Conclusions: Residents' perceptions toward industry gifts and interactions changed modestly during their training to reflect institutional policy. Appropriate gifts of minimal value were generally perceived as increasingly appropriate, whereas inappropriate gifts were perceived as increasingly inappropriate over time. An educational workshop alone may not significantly alter residents' perceptions toward industry without the implementation of broad and consistent institutional policy.