Transparency in drug company payments to doctors

摘要

Rebecca Coombes sums up the new UK system for public disclosure of payments from drug companies to doctors. Since the new year drug companies in the United Kingdom have begun recording any payments they make to doctors for certain services, such as chairing a meeting, in advance of plans to disclose the data to the public. This move echoes similar initiatives in the United States and the Netherlands designed to bring transparency to financial relationships between doctors, teaching hospitals, and drug companies. The information gathered over the next 12 months, and in subsequent years, will be uploaded to a publicly searchable database due to launch in July 2016.