Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16149

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Armstrong D.
What a Doctor Did That Was Worth $1 Million to Medtronic
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2009 Jul 29
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/07/29/what-a-doctor-did-that-was-worth-1-million-to-medtronic/

Full text:

Did you ever wonder what doctors do to earn big consulting contracts from medical device companies and pharmaceutical concerns?

Records released by Medtronic to Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime critic of the ties between academics and and health-care companies, provide a rare and detailed glimpse into the daily billings of a consultant – in this case, spine surgeon David Polly of the University of Minnesota.

Polly collected more than $1 million in four years of work for Medtronic, according to the records, which you can take a look at here.

The services he provided were many, but among them, Polly was paid to write articles for medical journals; write a chapter in a book and a book outline; recruit patients for publicity efforts; attend Medtronic national sales meetings; travel to conferences in Japan, Paris and elsewhere; lead training and educational sessions for physicians; and lobby Congress.

Polly also billed for at least two phone calls with Medtronic CEO William Hawkins as well as charging the company $2,000 when Mr. Hawkins visited an operating room. In October, 2003, he billed the company $12,000 for attending a medical meeting of the North American Spine Society, at $4,000 a day.

There are also scores of entries for work billed in five-minute increments, usually to send email or return phone calls. The bill for each five-minute charge? $49.48 a pop.

A lawyer for Polly said the surgeon is also a researcher and consultant, and “works very hard to ensure that he properly tracks and allocates the time spent among these roles and will review any concerns in this area. In every instance, he has conducted himself honorably in advocating for injured veterans.” Medtronic said it’s doing a “comprehensive review” of company procedures aimed at making sure physicians disclose their work for the company and expects to issue new standards in that area.

There is more detail in a WSJ article this morning.