Is Your Doctor Being PAID OFF By the Drug Industry?
Hi Guys,
Although this article on Dr. Mercola’s web site refers to the obvious state of affairs in the USA, there is ample evidence to confirm that the same strategy is applied in other countries, too. Yet more impetus to take charge of your health and well-being and to question not only every diagnosis you get but also the drugs prescribed. It is well to remember also that conflicts of interest such as this (stronger terms might be more appropriate here) also apply to some so-called medical research papers, with results often skewed to fit the needs of the funding drug company.For the full report and discussion papers, go to Dr. Mercola’s web site, at:
According to the results of a national survey, virtually all doctors asked reported some sort of financial relationship with medically related industries such as pharmaceutical companies.
The financial connections ranged from free lunches to payments for consulting and lecturing.
The survey was sent to more than 3,000 practicing anesthesiologists, cardiologists, family practitioners, general surgeons, internists and pediatricians, and just over half responded. Some 94 percent of the respondents acknowledged some kind of relationship with the drug industry, although 80 percent of them primarily accepted free food or drug samples.
However, research has shown that even inexpensive gifts can influence behavior.
In addition, more than one-third of the respondents were paid by the drug industry to travel to professional meetings or attend medical education classes. Family practitioners said they met an average of 16 times a month with industry reps, the most of any specialty surveyed. However, cardiologists were more than twice as likely as family practitioners to receive direct payments from industry.
Doctors were more likely to receive payments from industry if they were male, had any role in training doctors or developing medical guidelines, or had few uninsured patients or patients on Medicaid.
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