MEZIS

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MEZIS eV "I pay for my food myself" - Initiative of incorruptible doctors
(MEZIS)
Mezis eV Logo.jpg
purpose non-profit
Chair: executive board (Eckhard Schreiber-Weber, Manja Dannenberg, Jan Salzmann, Niklas Schurig), medical director Christiane Fischer
Establishment date: 2007
Number of members: 1013 (as of April 2019)
Seat : Bad Salzuflen
Website: www.mezis.de

The non-profit organization MEZIS “I pay for my food myself - Initiative of incorruptible doctors” , with its more than 1000 mostly medical members throughout Germany, has set itself the goal of making the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on doctors more transparent and reducing it.

Background and history

The idea for the foundation came up in 2006 at the symposium of the BUKO pharma campaign in Bielefeld . As a result, the initiative for incorruptible doctors with the name MEZIS eV “I pay for my own food” was founded in 2007 in Frankfurt am Main by eight members. The association's headquarters are in Bad Salzuflen, North Rhine-Westphalia . The model was the American organization No Free Lunch. According to the statutes, the purpose of the association is: "[...] to improve the scientific and independent further and advanced training of doctors and other health professions in the field of rational drug therapy and evidence-based medicine, and to avert harm to patients through inappropriate drug prescriptions and the to disclose and suppress currently existing non-transparent and misleading influencing of the prescription behavior. This purpose is to be achieved through our own, industry-independent publications (printed and electronic), advisory activities (for specialist journalists and organizers and those responsible for advanced training activities for the medical professions) and public relations. "

financing

The association is financed through membership fees and donations. In individual cases, the origin of the donation is critically questioned and checked. Donations or sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies and similar organizations are rejected. The association works according to the guidelines of Transparency International .

Goals and way of working

aims

The association has set itself several goals, most recently updated and specified in the Augsburg Declaration on the occasion of the MEZIS general meeting 2014 in Augsburg:

  • Professional law without a double bottom. The professional regulations must be formulated so clearly that benefits from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry in any form are not permitted.
  • Transparency of Influences. MEZIS requires general disclosure and a responsible handling of conflicts of interest.
  • Creation of guidelines without the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. Authors with relevant conflicts of interest should be excluded from the development of guidelines.
  • No CME certification of industry-financed training courses. MEZIS calls on the specialist societies, professional associations and professional associations to offer manufacturer-independent training courses.
  • Disclosure of all study data. The obligation to disclose all data from clinical studies must be enshrined in law.
  • Mandatory content in medical studies . Independent advanced training strategies and dealing with the pharmaceutical and medical device industry should be integrated as compulsory content in medical studies.
  • Patient information without the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. Patient information in the media must not serve as a gateway for hidden lay advertising (direct-to-consumer advertising).

Working method

In addition to annual general meetings and regional conferences, the association works at the federal level with other NGOs such as the Association of Democratic Doctors , the IPPNW , NeurologyFirst and Transparency International . The association sees itself as part of the worldwide Nofreelunch network, with partner organizations in Italy or Healthy Skepticism. In addition, it does educational work with the help of hearings in the Bundestag and with scientific discourses in specialist journals. In the media, the subject of pharmaceutical marketing is increasingly being noticed through MEZIS public relations. Regional groups network the doctors on site. A mailing list is available to members. In addition, MEZIS members have been receiving MEZIS news three times a year since 2008.

successes

At the beginning of 2014, the views of the association on the loophole in corruption criminal law for doctors were taken up several times in the press. The press also took up statements by the association on the subject of conflicts of interest in medicine, extremely overpriced prices for new, patented hepatitis drugs, or questions about the relationship of trust between doctor and patient in the area of ​​conflict in the pharmaceutical industry.

Joint initiative guideline watch

Together with Transparency Germany and NeurologyFirst, MEZIS founded the transparency portal leitlinienwatch.de at the end of 2015. Objective of this initiative: “The leitlinienwatch.de project evaluates guidelines according to 5 criteria in order to express the expectations of the medical profession and society of the independent creation of guidelines. Guidelinewatch.de wants to show good examples that need to be improved. ”By July 2016, the evaluation team had already assessed more than 100 German and some international guidelines, with the majority of guidelines documenting the need for reform. In August 2018, the results of the 67 German S3 guidelines analyzed so far were published in BMC Medical Ethics with the cooperation of MEZIS: Although financial conflicts of interest were mostly disclosed by German guideline authors, this usually remained without consequences. For example, guideline authors with conflicts of interest have so far hardly been induced to abstain from votes. A majority of authors with conflicts of interest were found in 55% of the guidelines evaluated. Only in 9% of the guidelines the coordinators were free of conflicts of interest. The evaluation results of guideline watch also flowed into the research on the medical device scandal “ Implant Files ”, for example with the guideline on heart valves, which could lead to conflicts of interest.

Focus 2018: Conflicts of Interest in Continuing Medical Education (CME)

As part of the MEZIS focus, the CME working group was able to use the "Omniawatch" analysis to prove that the medical training events of one of the then leading CME providers Omniamed had massive, undeclared conflicts of interest. The majority of the speakers at the Omniamed events analyzed had received funds from the pharmaceutical companies, who sponsored these events with an average of 100,000 to 200,000 euros. Furthermore, the topics discussed matched the sponsors' products. Due to the media coverage, the Baden-Württemberg State Medical Association refused Omniamed the CME certification for one of its events in Baden-Württemberg for the first time. The State Medical Association in Münster then refused certification to three Omniamed events because of "lack of product neutrality". Omniamed filed an objection, but withdrew it at the end of 2018 and surprisingly ended its business activities in Germany.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MEZIS statutes. MEZIS eV, accessed on April 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ MEZIS financial report, 2017
  3. ↑ a b Frequently asked questions: How is MEZIS financed? MEZIS eV, accessed on April 19, 2017 .
  4. ↑ MEZIS for patients
  5. ↑ Why MEZIS, download the Augsburg Declaration at the bottom. MEZIS eV, accessed on April 19, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Experts see regulatory gaps in corruption
  7. ↑ "Ärzteblatt.de" 14/2014, "Interest-based reporting."
  8. ↑ "Ärzteblatt.de", 3/2015, "Regulation of Conflicts of Interest: It is the turn of the professional associations."
  9. ↑ See press review ( Memento from January 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ MEZIS news
  11. ↑ “Westfälisches Ärzteblatt”, 3rd 2014, p. 27, “Creating a conscience for an entire professional group.” Panel discussion on corruption in the health care system. (pdf)
  12. ↑ "Der Tagesspiegel," September 25, 2014, "This is how corrupt the healthcare system is"
  13. ↑ "Stuttgarter Zeitung", March 18, 2013, "The Moralists and the Great Rest."
  14. ↑ "Der Tagesspiegel", January 15, 2013, "The best recipe."
  15. ↑ "taz", December 17, 2013, "80 percent pseudo-innovations."
  16. ↑ "Westdeutsche Zeitung", January 4, 2013, "Corruption among doctors:" Patients should be more critical. "There is also a reputation among doctors to prosecute bribed colleagues."
  17. ↑ "MOZ.de" 02-01.2013, "Stricter rules against corrupt doctors demanded."
  18. ^ "SWR2", February 2, 2015, 8:30 am, "On Conflicts of Interest in Medicine".
  19. ↑ "NDR.de", September 29, 2014, 9 p.m., "Does the pharmaceutical industry attract doctors with a fee?"
  20. ↑ "Deutsche Apothekerzeitung DAZ.online", January 22, 2015, 12:24 p.m., "Sovaldi loses patent in India."
  21. ↑ “WirtschaftsWoche”, August 27, 2014, “The most expensive pill in the world. The US company Gilead charges 700 euros for a single tablet of its hepatitis C drug Sovaldi. The three-month ration costs 60,000 euros. While the manufacturer benefits, the patients suffer. "
  22. ↑ Neurology First
  23. ^ Pia Busch: Influence of the pharmaceutical industry - plus minus. In: daserste.de. ARD, May 26, 2016, archived from the original on December 1, 2016 ; accessed on June 9, 2020 .
  24. ↑ How much evidence is there in guidelines? DAZ.online, May 10, 2016, accessed on April 19, 2017 .
  25. ↑ a b guidelineswatch.de
  26. Jump up ↑ Hendrik Napierala, Luise Schäfer, Gisela Schott, Niklas Schurig, Thomas Lempert: Management of financial conflicts of interests in clinical practice guidelines in Germany: results from the public database GuidelineWatch . In: BMC Medical Ethics . tape 19 , no. 1 . Springer Nature, June 28, 2018, ISSN  1472-6939 , p. 65 , doi : 10.1186 / s12910-018-0309-y , PMID 29954379 , PMC 6022410 (free full text).
  27. ↑ Markus Grill, Elena Kuch: Operation on an open wallet. In: www.ndr.de. NDR, November 27, 2018, accessed on February 10, 2019 .
  28. ↑ MEZIS, CME working group: Omniawatch analysis. (No longer available online.) MEZIS eV, 2018, formerly in the original ; accessed on February 10, 2019 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.mezis.de  
  29. ^ Medicine: The controversial business with medical training. Retrieved February 10, 2019 .
  30. ^ Deutscher Ärzteverlag GmbH, editorial office of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt: Conflicts of interest: Trouble about CME certification. August 8, 2018, accessed February 10, 2019 .
  31. ^ Sebastian Carlens: Points for Bayer. August 10, 2018, accessed February 10, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Hanno Charisius: Authority refuses certificate for controversial medical training . In: sueddeutsche.de . August 13, 2018, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed February 10, 2019]).
  33. ↑ a b Sebastian Carlens: Cover for pharmaceutical lobby. February 9, 2019, accessed February 10, 2019 .
  34. ↑ End of business activity in Germany. In: OmniaMed. Retrieved July 27, 2019 .