In the new era of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, the financial ties between medicine and industry will be unveiled as the law is implemented this year and transforms the medical community and patient care. Physicians, researchers, lawyers and medical industry professionals from across the nation will gather to discuss transparency, the state of medicine and the new law at the Symposium Under the Influence: Medicine in the Post Physician Payments Sunshine Act World – Changes, Challenges and Confusion.

The Symposium, hosted by AME and the University of Irvine, School of Medicine, will be held on Friday, February 28, 2014 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Beckman Center, 100 Academy Drive, Irvine, Calif. Physicians attending the Symposium will earn Continuing Medical Education credits.

The Association for Medical Ethics is a group of physicians from every specialty dedicated to increasing public awareness of financial transparency in medical research and the use of evidence-based medicine with the ultimate goal to better patient care and safety. The Association for Medical Ethics was one of the leading grassroots organizations that lobbied Congress and was the only physician-based organization to testify in front of Congress for the passage of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.

AME will present renowned experts; Terry Belmont, Chief Executive Officer of UCI Medical Center; Erwin Chemerinsky, UCI Dean of the School of Law; Howard Gillman, Ph.D., Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at UCI; and Allan Korn, M.D., Former Chief Medical Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield, among others to explore this new frontier of medicine.

“The need for ongoing, open dialogue on the role of influence in medicine is important in this era of medical transparency, which is why AME is sponsoring this informative symposium,” said Dr. Charles Burton, AME President, former Board Member and past President North American Spine Society (NASS) “Our panel of participants will speak to the changing face of medicine from research labs and patient care to the development of medical technology and new procedures,” he said.

At the Symposium, the Association for Medical Ethics will honor John Fauber, medical investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its partner MedPage Today, for his in-depth reportage exposing the troubling influence of drug and medical device company money on medical research and the practice of medicine. Fauber’s work has uncovered financial conflicts such as physician researchers paid by drug and medical device companies for clinical testing to obtain FDA approval and medical device companies concealing evidence of poor outcomes in clinical trials. Fauber is the first recipient of the Association for Medical Ethics Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism and Advancing Transparency in Medicine.

Featured Symposium Speakers include:

• Terry Belmont, CEO, UCI Medical Center
• Charles Burton, MD, President of the Association for Medical Ethics, Neurosurgical Spine Specialist and Medical Director, Sentinel Medical Associates, Editor, Burtonreport.com
• Erwin Chemerinsky, JD, Dean of the School of Law, UCI
• Howard Gillman, PhD, UCI Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
• Ranjan Gupta, MD, Chair and Professor UCI Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery
• Zeev Kain, MD, Associate Dean for Clinical Research, Chair, Department of Anesthesiology and Professor of Anesthesiology at UCI
• Allan Korn, MD, Former Chief Medical Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Scott Lederhaus, MD, Neurosurgeon, Inland Neurosurgery Institute and AME Board Member
• Charles Rosen, MD, Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCI School of Medicine; Co-Founder of the Association for Medical Ethics

“By opening a discourse about transparency here at UCI, we hope to be a leader for the medical community in implementing disclosures and evidence-based practices that will ensure safety and the best quality of care for our patients that begins on the bench in our research labs and continues through to the bedside in our hospital,” said Charles Rosen, MD, Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCI School of Medicine and Co-Founder of the Association for Medical Ethics.

Physicians attending the Symposium will earn Continuing Medical Education credits. This activity is approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. The course fee is $40 per person; attendees can register at http://www.ethicaldoctor.org/symposium. A cocktail reception will follow the Symposium.

About AME:

The Association for Medical Ethics (AME) consists of physicians from every specialty of medicine who have joined together to promote patient care and good evidence-based medicine. AME provides increased public awareness on important issues such as departures from the ethics of responsible patient care, and identify the often pervasive, and not infrequently adverse, influence of industry on many health care providers and their patients while maintaining a focus on the utilization of evidence-based care criteria in this process. AME was integrally involved in passage of the Sunshine Act through Congress being the only physician group to testify in favor of the Act. For more information about AME visit ethicaldoctor.org.