A number of news outlets have recently written stories about physicians accepting payments from pharmaceutical companies for consulting engagements or research grants. These payments, which occur in nearly every other industry, are vilified as being unethical and manipulating physicians.
I agree with those who raised this issue—these payments must be disclosed! Ironically, these payments represent a free-market approach to ranking and evaluating physician quality. The drug companies aren’t hiring the worst doctors to do research or serve on an advisory board, they are hiring the best physicians. I want this disclosure so that when I chose my next doctor or assist a family member with this process, I know which doctors are the best and I’d start at the top of the list.
The naiveté of the anti-pharma crowd is astounding. In one media account, I couldn’t help but notice that a certain specialist was quoted. This same doctor was one of the first to sound the alarm on SSRI and Triptan interactions. This doctor also accepted several hundred thousand dollars in industry consulting contracts over the last decade. Is he a worse doctor because of industry ties? I would argue the opposite—he is a better doctor who was able to detect very subtle drug interactions because he worked closely with the pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Give me the doc who keeps up with the science over the darlings of Public Citizen any day.
