The relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry continues to provoke debate, often framed around conflicts of interest and the potential for undue influence on prescribing practices. Financial ties, sponsored symposia, and promotional materials are carefully monitored, and in most contexts physicians remain ethically autonomous in their clinical decision making. The majority of practitioners do not prescribe under coercion, nor do they simply echo industry messaging. Yet there exists a subtler phenomenon: a form of “conditioning” that shapes the focus of medical attention once a new therapy becomes available [1,2].
