I have recently noticed a few websites offering an interesting combination of women’s health services, with traditional obstetrical and gynecological care alongside such services as esthetic or cosmetic procedures. As a woman, I must say I found these websites inviting. They project an image of sanctuary, where our physical AND psychological needs are attended to …
“We made a practical and open work environment for engineers and shop workers, forcing the guys behind the drawing boards onto the shop floor to see how their ideas were being translated into actual parts and to make any necessary changes on the spot.” -from Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed …
A drug company sales representative stands in front of a class of University of Toronto medical students and delivers her well-rehearsed sales pitch about the benefits of her company’s birth control pill. Hold on: Isn’t this sort of interaction between the pharmaceutical industry and med students supposed to be forbidden because of concerns about conflicts …
Ritika Goel’s recent commentary on Healthy Debate about the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on physicians got me thinking about other kinds of conflict of interest within the health care system, particularly related to health services researchers. There is a great need for researchers to be independent when conducting their work, and to be able to speak …
Why do so many doctors still think they are invincible to the influence of the pharmaceutical industry? Attractive, well-dressed, charismatic drug reps with pearly smiles and shiny flow charts still wait in waiting rooms. Lectures and conferences still occur where lunch is paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. Research studies are still published where investigators receive grants …
A recent article in a scientific journal has stimulated an interesting debate about the make up of advisory boards in health care, and what constitutes a conflict of interest. Dr. Barry Rubin is a vascular surgeon in Toronto and a member of an Expert Panel of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) that is …
In Canada, doctors’ associations regularly incorporate new evidence about medications into clinical practice guidelines that are intended to influence patient care. The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care reviews the same evidence to decide which medications it will pay for, and often comes to different conclusions. This results in doctors recommending medications which are …
“What’s the harm in taking something small? It’s just a pen. It’s only lunch. It was just one weekend at the bed & breakfast with my partner. And I learned about a topic that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Plus I got some samples in return! It won’t affect my prescribing habits…” These are …
There have been a number of recent reports of conflicts of interest in medical research. There are at least two types of conflicts of interest – financial conflicts, where researchers stand to gain financially from their work; and intellectual conflicts, where researchers stand to gain professionally. Ensuring that all conflicts of interest are declared and …
New drugs are developed every month, and doctors are continuously bombarded with information. Much of this information is provided by pharmaceutical sales representatives who visit doctors’ offices, sponsor lectures and give out medication samples. Are these encounters in the best interest of patients and the health care system? We went out to the street and …