Influence of health product companies, links and conflicts of interests. Perception of residents in general practice

Introduction. The national conference of deans has established an ethical and deontological charter to reinforce the teaching on the risks of loss of independence for students. The faculty of Saint-Etienne offers curriculum on links and conflicts of interests in the third cycle of general medicine. Objectives. To explore the perceptions of medical residents in Saint-Etienne of the influence of links and conflicts of interest of pharmaceutical companies and their wishes to participate to curriculum about these themes. Method. Qualitative study using grounded theory approach. Semi-structured interviews analyzed by categories, with 18 medicals residents conducted from December 2020 to June 2021. Results. Except for two residents initially trained outside France, the participants have been in repeated and regular contact with pharmaceutical companies since their second cycle, more often during hospital internships. The positions of the supervising physicians were rarely discussed during the course. Half of the participants were aware of the techniques of influence and expressed a feeling of invulnerability. For their continuing professional development, some of them would keep contacts with the companies' representatives, others would not. Conclusion. Training on links and conflicts of interest should be offered as early as the first cycle of medical studies and repeated throughout the curriculum. Hospital and community physicians should establish a dialogue with students on these topics. These proposals could allow students to exercise their free will throughout their studies. Learning about independent continuing medical education during initial training will help them make their choice.