If a pharmaceutical company offered to pay you money

"If a pharmaceutical company offered to pay you money to wear a small patch on the chest pocket of your white coat advertising their product, would you consider it?"1
Harold J. DeMonaco, MS, Director of Drug Therapy Management
Volume XII, Issue 5

This rather provocative question was posed to family practice housestaff at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Hospitals with surprising results. You can read the complete correspondence at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v286n9/ffull/jlt0905-7.html .

Researchers at MCV surveyed housestaff about participation in pharmaceutical company-sponsored luncheons and their perception of the influence of company representatives on their personal practice. Here are the results of the survey of the 164 residents who responded:

98% had eaten a company-sponsored meal in the past year
99% believed the product information provided by the company representative was at least partially accurate
91% believed that the company representative influenced their prescribing habits to some extent

Surprisingly, 13% of the residents indicated a willingness to actually wear a patch on their lab coats advertising a company product. The median requested remuneration for doing so was $100. If you have just wrinkled your nose, there's more. The residents were asked to empty the pockets of their lab coats and the contents were examined. Ninety-seven percent had at least one item with a drug company logo or drug name embossed on it. The products ranged from notepads to pens. About half of the products carried by the residents were branded. Here is the list of products:

from Reference 1

So, at least at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, the answer to the question appears to be "yes" and the remuneration is a free lunch.

Reference:

Sigworth SK, Nettleman MD, Cohen GM. Pharmaceutical branding of resident physicians. JAMA 2001; 286: 1024-5.