Consultation: Guidelines on cooperation between healthcare professionals and industry
Cooperation between medical professionals and industry is long established, it contributes to medical progress and is fundamentally in the interest of good healthcare services. At the same time, it can entail dependencies and lead to conflicts of interest.
Conflicts of interest involve a risk of professional judgement or behaviour being unduly influenced by a secondary interest. In medicine, this risk may arise if healthcare professionals receive gifts from the pharmaceutical or medtech industry. For this reason, the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (Schweizerische Akademie der Medizinischen Wissenschaften, SAMW) issued in 2013 medical-ethical guidelines on “Collaboration between the medical profession and industry”. These guidelines have been updated and the draft (available in German and in French) is open for public consultation until 25 February 2022. Interested organisations and individuals are invited to submit comments.