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https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-03/s-wtr030617.php
More than three in every five Americans see a doctor who receives some form of payment from industry. This is according to a new survey led by Genevieve Pham-Kanter of Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health in the US. It is the first nationally representative study to examine the prevalence of industry payments among the general population of patients.
[...] The survey was done in light of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which addresses concerns that industry payments could lead physicians to make decisions that are not in the best interest of their patients. Since 2013 the Act requires pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to report gifts and payments they make to healthcare providers. This information is publicly available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Open Payments website.
[...] The survey highlighted that 65 percent of respondents had visited a physician who accepted an industry payment. This was particularly the case for those visiting family medicine physicians (63 percent) and obstetricians and gynecologists (77 percent).
The Open Payments website can be found at: https://www.cms.gov/OpenPayments/index.html
References:
Pham-Kanter, G. , Mello, M., Lehmann, L., Campbell, E., Carpenter, D. (2017). Public Awareness of and Contact with Physicians Who Receive Industry Payments: A National Survey, Journal of General Internal Medicine, DOI: 10.1007/s11606-017-4012-3
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:41PM (1 child)
Ask your brother (after he has a couple drinks) whether he's based any treatment decisions based on a drug rep lunch (not even a dinner!). He may say more, but if he thinks about it and is honest, he may reconsider and realize that the reps have more influence on him than he originally thought.
After all, if the reps don't influence the docs: why bring them the free food?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 08 2017, @06:00PM
Ask your brother (after he has a couple drinks) whether he's based any treatment decisions based on a drug rep lunch (not even a dinner!). He may say more, but if he thinks about it and is honest, he may reconsider and realize that the reps have more influence on him than he originally thought.
After all, if the reps don't influence the docs: why bring them the free food?
Actually, I have had that discussion with him. He freely admits that the drug reps' contact sometimes impacts his decisions, but only in the sense that they may bring new information about treatment regimes and/or clinical data to his attention.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the "conferences" that he (and me, when he invited me to come along) attended had a much bigger impact on his decision-making process, than free pizza for him, his partners and their office staff. Those are much more insidious, as they give the drug companies' unfettered access to the physicians in a fairly isolated situation. Think about free vacations for attending timeshare sales pitches [google.com].
That such "conferences" are rare now is a good thing™ IMHO.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr