Chinese physician perceptions regarding industry support of continuing medical education programs: a cross-sectional survey

摘要

Background: Industry funding in continuing medical education has been extensively studiedin the USA. Although continuing medical education is also a requirement for Chinesephysicians, little is known about Chinese physician perceptions of industry support in con-tinuing medical education.Objective: We aim to determine perceptions regarding industry support for CME amongChinese physicians at a large CME course, examine potential associations between Chinesephysicians’ perceptions and their demographic characteristics, and compare Chinese and USphysicians’ perceptions of industry support for CME.Design: We performed a cross-sectional survey of physicians at a nephrology continuingmedical education conference in China. All participants received a previously published,anonymous survey consisting of 4 items, with questions asked in English and MandarinChinese. Responses were compared with those of a previous cohort in the USA.Results: The response rate was 24% (128/541). Most respondents were nephrologists (112/126,89%), women (91/128, 71%), and aged 20 to 40 years (79/127, 62%). Most respondents preferredindustry-supported continuing medical education (84/123, 68%) or had no preference (33/123,27%). More clinicians than clinical researchers supported industry offsetting costs (76.9% vs58.3%; P = .03). Almost half of participants (58/125, 46%) stated that industry-supported continu-ing medical education was biased in support of industry. Compared with US physicians, Chinesephysicians were more likely to believe, or had no opinion, that industry-supported courses werebiased (67.2% vs 47.0%; P < .001).Conclusions: Chinese continuing medical education participants preferred industry-sponsored continuing medical education and were strongly in favor of industry offsettingcosts, but almost half believed that such education was biased in favor of supportingcompanies. Concern for bias was higher among Chinese than US physicians. Given partici-pants’ concerns, further study examining industry bias in Chinese continuing medical educa-tion is recommended.