From Caroline Rodriguez at the Integrity in Science Watch project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
"More than 15,000 doctors visited Washington, D.C. last week to attend the largest ever gathering of gastrointestinal physicians. Integrity in Science Watch paid a visit.Posted by schwitz at May 29, 2007 08:35 AM | TrackBackAs soon as each doctor walked onto the convention floor, they were handed purple-pill backpacks advertising Nexium from AstraZeneca. The Shire Pharmaceuticals’ booth offered weary physicians a park-like atmosphere complete with gently rolling grassy hills, stone paths, park benches, and free hot dogs. The Abbott booth contained a mini-movie theater. On every aisle, companies provided free slushies, gourmet espressos, coffee, tea, sweets, hot dogs, and fresh pretzels. They also offered beach towels, blankets, movies, free internet access, and, the most popular gift of all, a comfortable place to sit and chat with colleagues or the model-like sales representatives who prowled the convention floor.
Most of the doctors surveyed did not express concerns about the potential influence of the gifts. Some said they expect free knick-knacks at conferences, but would oppose them at schools or hospitals. Others said it was important for companies to promote themselves. Almost no one favored cutting out free gifts at physician conventions and offices, but perhaps that was because this informal survey only included doctors clutching blankets, towels, key chains, or pens.
The quietest space on the convention floor was the corner reserved for the small booths of patient advocacy groups, text book sellers, and scientific journals. “We don’t get any sponsorship from corporations for our meeting booths,” said Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America representative Laura Hitchens, eyeing the towering Fuji stereo sound system blaring a description of a colonoscopy camera. Thelma King Thiel of the Hepatitis Foundation says they wouldn’t say no if a company was to offer to fund their booths, but not many companies are interested in prevention, she said."
What's a few trinkets?
The real money - into six figures - comes from activities mentioned in your June 3 post: "Disciplined docs still on pharma payroll." Even undisciplined docs can put away serious money by this mechanism. [Other ways for docs to make money include serving on the board of directors of companies like Pepsi - but as long as it is not illegal I guess this is OK?]
Much of the material from the NYT article you cite is reprinted in the StarTribune.
Minnesota is getting a lot of bad publicity right now about this, because we are the only state requiring this information to be disclosed. Hopefully other states will soon follow suit in requiring such disclosure.
Mr. B.
Posted by: Mr. Bonzo at June 4, 2007 01:06 AM