The FDA is apparently considering loosening the conflict-of-interest rules that apply to members of FDA advisory committee members. These rules have set limits on the financial arrangements that members can have with companies in the health care industry. The Project on Government Oversight wrote about the issue last week. If the perceived problem is that [...]
The Spine Journal has published a special June issue focusing on Medtronic’s INFUSE product, or rhBMP-2, a bone growth product commonly used in spine fusion surgeries. A journal news release states: A critical review of 13 industry-sponsored studies on a spine surgery product found that the actual risk of adverse events was 10 to 50 [...]
One week from today, Thursday, June 16, Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, and her PharmedOut.org project based at Georgetown University begin a two-day conference, “Pharma Knows Best? Managing Medical Knowledge.” Topics include ghostwriting, pharma-free continuing medical education, disease awareness campaigns and, in general, academic scientists’ relationships with industry. Speakers include: Marcia Angell MD, Harvard Medical SchoolVirginia Barbour [...]
Reuters Health published an important story, “Financial transparency skin-deep at medical journals.” Excerpts: “Nobody is making sure that authors declare their conflicts of interest. That has a very real potential to influence public health and corporate bottom lines, experts say, because researchers with industry ties are more likely to promote drugs and downplay side effects.…“At [...]
In the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Christopher Snowbeck reports, “Health care debate that’s radioactive: where to build the region’s radiation treament centers.” Excerpts: “…radiation treatment centers… cost millions of dollars to build and have been the subject of fierce debates in Minnesota about where they should be located and who should be allowed to operate [...]
The editors of PLoS Medicine conclude that a new Harvard analysis published in their journal: “…shows that (medical) students are frequently exposed to pharmaceutical marketing, even in the preclinical years, and that the extent of students’ contact with industry is generally associated with positive attitudes about marketing and skepticism towards any negative implications of interactions [...]
John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in collaboration with MedPage Today, reports another in his series of reports on conflicts of interest in health care research. It begins: “Since 2002, the medical device company Medtronic and a group of doctors with financial ties to the company were aware that its new biological agent used [...]
The Chicago Tribune reports, “Patients at heart of medical device issue: Recipients of life-saving products may not know of potential conflicts of interest when doctors put their own inventions to use.” The Tribune reports that the case they report on: “… highlights the tangled web of interests patients face when they require medical devices …showing [...]
On his Cardiobrief blog, Larry Husten introduces: “…the first of a three-part series on the National Lipid Association. This first part focuses on the NLA’s publication of a series of papers offering expert guidance on familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and raises serious questions about the role of industry in the documents. The second part explores additional [...]
See the latest in ProPublica’s “Dollars for Doctors” series, this one headlined “Financial Ties Bind Medical Societies To Drug and Device Makers.” It begins: “From the time they arrived to the moment they laid their heads on hotel pillows, the thousands of cardiologists attending this week’s Heart Rhythm Society conference have been bombarded with pitches [...]
Better than a competing piece by Reuters but still a little short on some details about this asthma drug study.
An adequate summary of this asthma drug trial’s design doesn’t make up for the overly optimistic tone about the drug’s future. A New York Times story was better.
This story focuses on a family that may have a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, the “rare” part wasn’t mentioned until 1,600 words into this 2,100 word story.
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