We might look back on the 2000s and see them as the time when medical education really did begin to lose its dependence on drug company funding. A cluster of articles in this week’s issue suggests a groundswell of change from around the world.

In the United States the Macy report, published earlier this year, recommends that organisations providing accredited continuing medical education should stop receiving funds from drug and device companies. Suzanne Fletcher, who chaired the committee that wrote the report, acknowledges that this process will probably take several years and “will also take professional leadership” (doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1023). Although the recommendation was made on ethical grounds, she …