Medical Students' Exposure to and Attitudes about the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Systematic Review

The relationship between health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry has become a source of controversy. Physicians’ attitudes towards the industry can form early in their careers, but little is known about this key stage of development. A search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and ERIC from the earliest available dates through May 2010, as well as bibliographies of selected studies were done. Data from original studies that reported quantitative or qualitative data about medical students’ exposure to pharmaceutical marketing, their attitudes about marketing practices, relationships with industry, and related pharmaceutical policy issues were taken. URL: [http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001037].