July 11, 2007

Dear Colleagues:

After months of consultation within the medical school community, we have finished our work on the interim guidelines on industry relations.  These final interim guidelines, which are attached, were based on similar documents developed by The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), and other organizations and reflecting input from many of our students, faculty, residents and staff. I appreciate that so many of you took time to submit thoughtful and constructive comments on the previous draft, which we circulated in May.

These guidelines should be seen as an interim step. No set of guidelines can address every issue, and many of the issues at UCSF cut across all of the schools, the Medical Center and our other clinical sites.  It is my hope and recommendation that the campus develop guidelines that will apply to all schools, students and faculty and are integrated with the policies adopted by the Medical Center so that we have consistent expectations for the entire campus. 

In the meantime, I want all of us within the School of Medicine to have clear guidance so that our academic programs are not compromised, while we continue to maintain a collaborative relationship with industry that has been so important to our research and clinical care.

Sincerely,

David A. Kessler, MD