Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3918
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
Kassirer J.
Physicians on the Take
Medscape 2006 Mar 20
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524994?src=mp
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:
In this 2 1/2 minute ‘Webcast Video Editorial’, Jerome Kassirer succinctly sums up one of Healthy Skepticism’s key concerns.
Full text:
This ‘Webcast Video Editorial’ is a streaming audio-visual presentation.
Physicians on the Take
Posted 03/20/2006
Jerome P. Kassirer, MD
In my view, relations between physicians and industry have become scandalous.1 Many academics and community opinion leaders are paid large sums to market industry products by becoming members of speaker’s bureaus, by developing marketing materials disguised as educational information, by signing articles written by ghostwriters, and by promoting the off-label use of products. These activities may benefit companies’ shareholders, but they do not benefit patients, and because the products promoted are usually the newest and most expensive, they inflate the cost of care.
Though physicians who engage in these activities often believe that company largesse cannot influence their objectivity, all evidence from psychological studies suggests that this is a naive belief.2 Aside from the harm of such biases to patient care, participation in marketing sets a poor example for younger physicians, who are being seduced by industry every day with lunches, dinners, and gifts. The public has become increasingly aware that doctors are making financial “deals” with pharmaceutical, biotech, and device companies. People are beginning to lose trust that their doctors’ advice is for their benefit rather than for their doctors’ benefit.
The profession’s response to the increasing involvement with industry has been feeble.3 Our professional organizations and academic medical centers must take a leadership role in reversing this troublesome trend by reducing or eliminating pharmaceutical largesse at their institutions.
That’s my opinion. I’m Dr. Jerome Kassirer, Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Tufts University and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Sign Up now for a free monthly email that brings you the top features from MedGenMed.
Readers are encouraged to respond to George Lundberg, MD, Editor of MedGenMed, for the editor’s eye only or for possible publication via email: glundberg@medscape.net
References
Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts; Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Bioethics, Case School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Disclosure: Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Medscape General Medicine. 2006;8(1):74. ©2006 Medscape
