Industry gifts and fees for physicians
- 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
After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Health systems and advocacy
How to approach this question
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 8 questions on this topicMock interviews
If you want to practice with a person, we run mock MMI and panel interviews with feedback on every answer.
