AMA May Do Post-Mortem on Sunbeam Deal

Heads could roll at the American Medical Assn., which meets today in Chicago to brief board members on the medical group’s highly publicized withdrawal from an endorsement deal with Sunbeam Corp. The Chicago Tribune, which described the aborted deal as a “fiasco,” reported that some staff members might be dismissed. Irate AMA members branded the deal to endorse certain Sunbeam products as crass commercialism. The AMA subsequently withdrew from the sponsorship deal, sparking a $20-million lawsuit from Sunbeam. AMA spokesman Craig May said only that board members will meet “to get briefed on the Sunbeam deal.”