Medical Marketing: What is it and can it Hurt?

Dan Frith

Contributor

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Most physicians in the United States have financial relationships with the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Those relationships range from the acceptance of meals to the receipt of large sums of money for consulting, speaking, or conducting research. For example, two physicians made more than $8 million each from Dupuy Orthopaedics, Inc. , which lists the payments on its Web site.

A recent article on CNN tells an interesting story. The story is about Linda Lewis who had back surgery two years ago. Her surgeon in Beverly Hills, California put in an artificial disc to help relieve her lower back pain. The surgery was a failure and Lewis ended up in debilitating pain, could walk only with the assistance of a walker and had to have a second procedure to correct the first one.

Lewis then discovered that her surgeon had undisclosed financial ties to the company that made the disc and believes that those ties prompted her surgeon to recommend the disc over other treatment options.

Is there anything wrong with requiring doctors to disclose financial ties to medical device and pharmaceutical companies when they use their products to treat patients?

I do not think so!