You want fries and a coke with that?

The American Academy of Family Physicians, one of the US's largest medical organisations, has denied No Free Lunch—an organisation of health care providers that encourages physicians to refuse gifts from industry—the opportunity to exhibit at its upcoming annual meeting in San Francisco.

In a letter to No Free Lunch’s Director Dr. Robert Goodman, AAFP’s Manager of Sales and Services Sharon Hutinett said that No Free Lunch’s position was “not within the character and purpose of the Scientific Assembly” and therefore did not meet the AAFP’s “eligibility requirements.” This despite the fact that the Coca-Cola Company (booths # 2321 & 2323), The McDonald’s Corporation (# 2425 & 2427), and The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (# 527) will all be present at the meeting, and whose missions thus presumably are within the character and purpose of the assembly.

Over 5,000 physicians are expected to attend the meeting, and exhibitors are told on the AAFP website that “seven dedicated exhibit hall hours provide you with the opportunity for one-on-one access to these high-prescribing, qualified buyers!” If this is not enough, companies are provided with an array of sponsorship opportunities. For example: $17,500 buys granola bars (“in a custom designed bag that prominently features your logo”) that are placed in the “Doctor’s Bag” that are distributed to all registrants’ hotel rooms; $150,000 buys 50 custom-made banners that will adorn the shuttle buses taking attendees to and from San Francisco’s Moscone Center. As the AAFP notes on its website: “The supporter of the shuttle bus banners will also receive complimentary private coach service for its staff from the supporter’s main hotel to and from the convention center.” And of course, there’s free lunch: $60,500 pays for the food vouchers that physician-attendees will use for lunch each day at the conference. (see http://www.aafp.org/x32809.xml)

In April of this year, The American College of Physicians also denied No Free Lunch the opportunity to exhibit at its Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The ACP further prevented No Free Lunch members and medical students from distributing literature—in some instances using armed San Francisco Police—even when this literature was the ACP’s own guidelines on acceptance of gifts from industry.

No Free Lunch (http://nofreelunch.org/) is a not for profit organization whose mission is to encourage health care providers to practice medicine on the basis of scientific evidence rather than on the basis of pharmaceutical promotion. It discourages the acceptance of gifts from industry by health care providers, trainees, and students. Its goal is improved patient care. It was founded in 1999 by Bob Goodman, a general internist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.