New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram has released a report from the Division of Consumer Affairs that recommends new regulations to avoid conflicts of interest between doctors and pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.

David Szuchman, the director of the Division of Consumer Affairs, presented the policy recommendations to the attorney general. According to General Milgram, the division's staff met with physicians, pharmacists, hospital executives, and pharmaceutical industry and insurance company representatives in preparing the report.

The report contains reforms for consideration by the Board of Medical Examiners (BME), the Board of Pharmacy, the Department of Health and Senior Services and academic medical centers that would regulate New Jersey physicians' financial relationships with the drug/device industry. Currently no state has imposed disclosure requirements on physicians, although several states have placed disclosure and conflict reporting obligations on industry. The Executive Summary of the report states that "imposition of such obligations on physicians is a critical element of the initiative to impose principled standards on the relationships between doctors and industry. These standards will benefit New Jersey's patients and health care consumers."

The report addresses eight areas: Gifts, Food and Reimbursements; Disclosure, Continuing Medical Education (CME); Data Mining; Physicians in Training; Physician Accountability; Health Care Facilities; and Academic Detailing.

Highlights of specific report recommendations include:

-- To amend BME regulations to expressly forbid a licensee from accepting, from any pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturer, cash payments or company-funded entertainment or recreational item;

--To mandate, as part of the BME biennial renewal process, that physicians disclose if they have accepted more than $200 during the preceding two years from manufacturers in the form of compensation, food, travel, consulting fees or honoraria, or other economic benefits;

--To impose an obligation on physicians who are engaged as CME speakers to directly disclose to physician-learners at the beginning of a presentation any receipt of reportable compensation from manufacturers.

-- Amend Board of Pharmacy regulations to require pharmacies to maintain documentation confirming that prescribers have consented to the sale of their prescribing information.

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