New Health Centre to open at Kelso Cochrane House - Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Researchers analysed data from more than 90 studies, which examined pharmaceutical company promotion to prescribersHanna Kuprevich/ Alamy Stock PhotoPromotional interactions between pharmaceutical companies and clinicians, including gifts and payments, are likely “associated with harmful outcomes”, a Cochrane review has suggested. Publishing the findings of the review, entitled ‘Pharmaceutical industry information and promotional strategies aimed at prescribers’ in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on 9 October 2026, the authors highlighted that such gifts were associated with “inappropriate prescribing”, an increase in the quantity of prescriptions and “probably” an increase in prescription costs. Gifts and payments were considered to include food and drink, consultancy payments, payments to cover travel expenses, and conference and other educational expenses. The authors analysed 93 studies of pharmaceutical company promotion to prescribers. Of these, 82 studies were conducted in the United States, while 11 studies were conducted in the European Union or the UK.

European Medical Journal news storyPeople living with HIV may experience subtle changes in heart muscle function even when conventional measures of cardiac performance remain normal, according to findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis. Researchers identified significantly impaired global longitudinal strain (GLS) among people with HIV compared with HIV-uninfected individuals, despite preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in both groups. The findings suggest that speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) could provide additional information about early myocardial dysfunction in this population. Read the full news story here.

Among cancer patients, the high financial cost of cancer care is a prevalent problem. This financial burden is also associated with potentially harmful behavioral strategies that patients might use to cope with costs, such as delaying or forgoing treatment and skipping medications. Collectively, researchers refer to this impact as financial toxicity.