In an article over at Berkeley Wellness, David Tuller, Dr. PH., wrote about a rather difficult situation he was confronted with during a HIV meeting he attended in Boston.
The journalist was offered financial compensation indirectly from a pharmaceutical company to cover his transportation and motel costs, did he accept it?
In addition, Tuller pointed out the pharmaceutical industry supplies our doctor with pens, notepads, mugs and yep, those free drug samples stored away in your medicine cabinet. Well, he didn't imply that we have free drugs hidden in our bathroom, or that because we accepted the samples, we indirectly received compensation from a drug company, I did that all by myself.
Whenever a pharmaceutical "rep" supplies our doctor with drug-labeled calendars and other free goods, it can easily create an ethical dilemma, but then, so can we.
Do Pharma Gifts Influence Doctors?
by David Tuller, Dr.ph. | December 04, 2013
The extensive web of financial ties between drug companies and other industry groups, doctors, academic researchers and medical institutions has for decades remained largely hidden from public view. In recent years, public and political pressure toward greater transparency has led to far more disclosure of conflicts of interest in the medical profession, and in particular the large consulting fees, free trips and other goodies that drug companies sprinkle among physicians in a position to prescribe their products. For their part, peer-reviewed medical and public health journals have promulgated increasingly stringent disclosure policies for authors, although how strictly they enforce the policies is a separate question. But does disclosure alone offer the reader sufficient protection from any influence the funder might try to wield? In academic publishing, the answer is considered to be “yes.” In a non-academic publication, such sponsored material would simply be called advertising...
That last bit—about dispelling physicians’ “sense of denial”—sounds like wishful thinking to me. So until that happens, patients themselves can play their own part in pushing for greater disclosure....
Although most patients might feel uncomfortable asking their doctors if they receive financial compensation or free goods from pharmaceutical companies, medical-device makers or other commercial interests, they have a right to know....
Continue reading.........
Photo Credit - www.drugwatch.com
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