Comments on: Chemo Drugs and Doctor Profits http://trishatorrey.com/2007/02/19/chemo-drugs-and-doctor-profits/ A blog about patient empowerment, advocacy, safety, consumerism and tools to navigate the dysfunction of American health care. Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:29:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: gpawelski http://trishatorrey.com/2007/02/19/chemo-drugs-and-doctor-profits/comment-page-1/#comment-442 gpawelski Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:29:21 +0000 http://trishatorrey.com/?p=185#comment-442 Selling cancer chemotherapy with concessions creates conflicts of interest for oncologists http://www.healthyskepticism.org/news/2007/Jun.php Selling cancer chemotherapy with concessions creates conflicts of interest for oncologists

http://www.healthyskepticism.org/news/2007/Jun.php

]]> By: Doctors Profit from Treatments (part II) « Every Patient’s Advocate http://trishatorrey.com/2007/02/19/chemo-drugs-and-doctor-profits/comment-page-1/#comment-268 Doctors Profit from Treatments (part II) « Every Patient’s Advocate Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:50:32 +0000 http://trishatorrey.com/?p=185#comment-268 [...] , Self Help , Medical Commentary , Medical News , Medical  A couple weeks ago I wrote about oncologists who recommend chemo to their patients and then profiting from those chemo drugs they’ve recommended.  One doctor I talked to said [...] [...] , Self Help , Medical Commentary , Medical News , Medical  A couple weeks ago I wrote about oncologists who recommend chemo to their patients and then profiting from those chemo drugs they’ve recommended.  One doctor I talked to said [...]

]]> By: Julia Schopick http://trishatorrey.com/2007/02/19/chemo-drugs-and-doctor-profits/comment-page-1/#comment-267 Julia Schopick Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:09:26 +0000 http://trishatorrey.com/?p=185#comment-267 Trisha: You can’t imagine how honored I was when I logged onto your blog today and saw your posting. You already know how much I admire your work – so today's posting was doubly flattering. I am very glad you feel that I added to your knowledge (which is already impressive!). In your post, you ask for suggestions as to how to get involved in making changes to a system where doctors make money when prescribing certain meds. I am so excited about this! As you probably know, this is a huge concern of mine, too. Also, I am sure you know that doctors are influenced in other ways – not only by buying a drug wholesale and selling it to their patients at marked-up prices. This, by the way, is apparently a problem mainly with oncologists. Other doctors aren't allowed to do this, to my knowledge. But there are other influences on doctors to prescribe certain meds. One is the fact that they are wined, dined and “penned” and “penciled” to death with both small and large gifts by drug companies. In fact, many of their (“educational”) seminars are paid for by Big Pharma. (Please see Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD’s article, "Doctors Must Not Be Lapdogs to Drug Firms" at http://301url.com/fughberman .) And then, there is the (I think) much larger problem that so many of the doctors who conduct the studies for pharmaceutical companies are on Big Pharma payrolls. David Armstrong has written several wonderful “Wall Street Journal” articles exposing this terrible problem. Two of his best may be found at http://www.301url.com/wsj_jama1 and http://www.301url.com/wsj_jama2 . (I have shortened both URLs.) Inspired by Armstrong’s excellent detective work, I wrote a 3-part article for my site, entitled “The JAMA Controversy” (http://301url.com/jama-all), in which I quote from these WSJ articles, and go on to give my own thoughts on the situation. My conclusion: In this particular case – and unfortunately, in many similar cases – the medical journals that publish the Pharma-financed studies too often close their eyes to the fact that the doctors who conduct the studies are sometimes not really objective. So, is it only when prescribing chemotherapy drugs that doctors are unduly influenced? Not really. A sad state of affairs. Again, Trisha, thanks for your vote of confidence. Maybe together, we can help to change things. Keep up the GREAT work! Julia Schopick http://www.honestmedicine.typepad.com Trisha:

You can’t imagine how honored I was when I logged onto your blog today and saw your posting. You already know how much I admire your work – so today’s posting was doubly flattering. I am very glad you feel that I added to your knowledge (which is already impressive!).

In your post, you ask for suggestions as to how to get involved in making changes to a system where doctors make money when prescribing certain meds. I am so excited about this! As you probably know, this is a huge concern of mine, too.

Also, I am sure you know that doctors are influenced in other ways – not only by buying a drug wholesale and selling it to their patients at marked-up prices. This, by the way, is apparently a problem mainly with oncologists. Other doctors aren’t allowed to do this, to my knowledge.

But there are other influences on doctors to prescribe certain meds. One is the fact that they are wined, dined and “penned” and “penciled” to death with both small and large gifts by drug companies. In fact, many of their (“educational”) seminars are paid for by Big Pharma. (Please see Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD’s article, “Doctors Must Not Be Lapdogs to Drug Firms” at http://301url.com/fughberman .)

And then, there is the (I think) much larger problem that so many of the doctors who conduct the studies for pharmaceutical companies are on Big Pharma payrolls. David Armstrong has written several wonderful “Wall Street Journal” articles exposing this terrible problem. Two of his best may be found at http://www.301url.com/wsj_jama1 and http://www.301url.com/wsj_jama2 . (I have shortened both URLs.)

Inspired by Armstrong’s excellent detective work, I wrote a 3-part article for my site, entitled “The JAMA Controversy” (http://301url.com/jama-all), in which I quote from these WSJ articles, and go on to give my own thoughts on the situation.

My conclusion: In this particular case – and unfortunately, in many similar cases – the medical journals that publish the Pharma-financed studies too often close their eyes to the fact that the doctors who conduct the studies are sometimes not really objective.

So, is it only when prescribing chemotherapy drugs that doctors are unduly influenced? Not really.

A sad state of affairs.

Again, Trisha, thanks for your vote of confidence. Maybe together, we can help to change things.

Keep up the GREAT work!

Julia Schopick
http://www.honestmedicine.typepad.com

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