from NaturalNews Website
When it comes to advertising, are doctors really immune?
Every year, millions of dollars are
spent by pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers
in attempts to win over physicians. All-expense-paid trips to
Hawaii, season tickets to sporting events, lavish dinners, expensive
wine, T-shirts, hats, key chains and pens. All of this, of course,
endorsed by Company X. No wonder doctors are drinking the Kool-Aid.
The topic isn't anything new; corruption in the medical industry is a sad but well-known truth.
Ornstein and
Weber, however, uncovered some startling statistics about just how
much money is being spent to influence medical societies and why
patients ought to do their own research before opting for a surgery
or risky procedure with a doctor-recommended medical device.
Citing information from the society's websites and tip sheets about medical devices, such as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, Ornstein notes that patients aren't given any information about the potential risks associated with such products or are led to believe they are safer than they may be:
The investigation also revealed that more than one in five patients who receives a device promoted by the Heart Rhythm Society may not actually meet the scientific criteria for getting one.
If that's not cause enough for alarm,
consider that a typical medical device could cost around the same
amount as an average person's yearly salary.
Weber, however, notes
that individual doctors and institutions are given money for
research, while societies don't do research on their own. The money
societies receive may support educational conferences and the like
but does not go toward product development.
At the 2010 conference, $5 million dollars were funneled into everything from exhibits to key chains - all in attempts to buy off HRS gatekeepers.
The HRS doesn't only receive money for conferences and educational resources.
Its board members - 12 of 18 directors - are also paid to
act as speakers and consultants for medical device companies. But
these kinds of relationships aren't unique to the HRS. Other medical
societies, such as The American Society of Hypertension, have been
reported to have similar "arrangements."
If doctors remain under the sway of their slick, rich friends - despite their best intentions to stay neutral - the integrity of medical care will always be compromised:
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