The United States went off the gold standard in the 1930s and the American Medical Association is looking to establish a new one for the 21st Century.
Dr. Reed Tuckson, the Chicago-based medical group’s vice president for professional standards, said last week that the goal of a blue-ribbon panel will be to “create a gold standard for how the AMA and other (medical) organizations should have relationships with corporate America consistent with larger values embedded in medicine.”
Some members of the AMA think the group’s image was smudged in a now-discredited deal that would have meant millions for the AMA endorsement of certain Sunbeam Corp. products.
Feeling perhaps that physicians and money should not be mentioned in the same sentence, the AMA will set up ethical guidelines to shape future activities.
