Reply #9: Doctors draw payments from drug companies [View All]

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

Physicians say presentations they make are educational, but critics say the practice puts financial rewards ahead of patient care

Follow drug company money in Illinois, and it leads to the psychiatry department at Rush University Medical Center, a prominent headache clinic on the North Side of Chicago, a busy suburban urology practice and a psychiatric hospital accused of overmedicating kids.

In each of these settings, doctors are drawing an extra paycheck — worth tens of thousands of dollars a year or more — for speaking to other medical professionals about pharmaceutical products at company-sponsored, company-scripted events in Illinois and across the country.

The extent of these activities is only now coming to light as drug companies start publicly releasing data about their relationships with physicians, information that until now has been a closely guarded secret.

The pharmaceutical data show that 11 Illinois physicians each earned more than $100,000 between January 2009 and June 2010 from seven companies, according to a new database compiled by the national investigative news organization ProPublica. An additional 13 medical providers earned between $75,000 and $100,000, primarily for participating in speakers' bureaus and educational forums. Most doctors received far lesser sums.

This medical moonlighting is perfectly legal but highly controversial.

Doctors and drug companies say their collaborations provide time-pressed medical professionals with much-needed education about how best to treat illnesses and how various drugs work. But other medical and policy experts say physicians involved in the activities have crossed an important line, straying into the realm of product promotion and potentially compromising their independence and patient care.


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/docdollars/ct-met-doctors-drug-dollars-20101018,0,2745754.story