I agree with the sentiment of the article, but not the specific suggestions.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/opinion/02mon2.html?th&emc=3Dth

said:
>"Several states have tried to rein in abuses by requiring some form of
>disclosure, but every state law has defects, most notably a failure to 
>make doctor-specific data readily available to the public. Last week
Senator 
>Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Special Committee on
>Aging, and Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said they would
>push for a national registry that would force drug and medical device
>companies to report their gifts and payments to physicians."

Already, there is a national registry that requires physicians to declare
ALL sources of income greater than $600 per year: the IRS.  Consulting fees
fall into this category.  Failure to report already carries with it stiff
penalties. 

"The legislation ought to require electronic reporting of all payments to
individual doctors for posting in a registry that could be easily searched
from home computers. If there is nothing wrong with such payments, neither
the doctors nor the industry should object to public disclosure."

And here I disagree.  The "if you have nothing to hide, then tell me
everything" argument holds no water. For example: there's nothing wrong with
me charging my patients and earning a living, but I would object to having
my bookkeeping files and my income tax files readily posted on the Internet,
for all to see.  I'm already concerned enough about identity theft as it is,
what with the government wanting to post my SSN, my date of birth, maiden
name, tax ID #, etc. that it gleaned from my NPI application.  

Since some physicians are employed doing full-time research for drug
manufacturers, vaccine makers, etc., this would basically make their entire
salary package public information.  Is that fair?  

I understand the sentiment behind the editorial: drug costs are driven up by
these incredible advertising budgets (a lot of which is direct-to-consumer,
which I have a major beef with too.)  But in among the slick advertising
campaigns, let's not confuse genuine, valuable bench and clinical research.
Reputable physicians already put conflict-of-interest disclosures on
academic work they do, whether that's article publishing, lecturing, etc.
Let's encourage all physicians to prepare and keep a disclosure list handy,
and make sharing it voluntary (with peer pressure on nonparticipators.)
Carrots are always preferable to sticks.

Suzanne Berman

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