How to answer a question on gifts from pharmaceutical companies in a medical school interview
- Kind
- Policy and health systems
Prompt
Should physicians be allowed to accept free meals, paid travel or speaking fees from companies that make the products they recommend to patients, as long as they tell their patients about it?
Practice this question
Answer it yourself first. The approach to this question opens below when your feedback arrives.
How to approach this question
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Health systems and advocacy
How to approach it
This panel interview question tests whether disclosure is enough to manage a conflict of interest when a physician's recommendations shape what patients receive. Name the stakeholders: patients who trust that advice is unbiased, physicians, companies, and a health system that pays for what's recommended. Consider whether gifts influence judgment even when physicians believe they don't, and whether patients can realistically weigh a disclosure during a short appointment. Distinguish between kinds of payment, such as a free meal and a fee for real expert work. Weigh the value of working with industry against the risk to patients' trust. Then take a clear position and name the rules you'd support.
More on conflicts of interest
All 7 questions on this topicMock interviews
Practice with a real interviewer
A real interviewer asks questions, records the interview so you can review it together, and gives feedback on your content and delivery.
