The Stanford School of Medicine has taken disciplinary action against five faculty members who gave paid promotional speeches on behalf of drug companies, thereby violating the School’s conflict of interest rules. This development comes five months after ProPublica, a public interest media outlet, found that more than a dozen of Stanford’s doctors served as paid speakers.

Following the ProPublica report, Dean Philip Pizzo condemned these violations in his Dec. 13, 2010 newsletter.

“Our preliminary investigation suggests that some of the individuals likely to be reported by ProPublica had understandable reasons for confusion about Stanford’s policies and have already addressed them and ceased activities like ‘speakers’ bureau’ participation,” Pizzo wrote then. “Others, though, offered explanations why their activities continued that are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with our policy, and here we have concerns.”

— An Le Nguyen