Disturbing Medical News (doctor, treatments, expensive, dangers)

[famlife]

i received this info from a medical newsletter i subscribe to.


TV STATIONS AIRING FAKE NEWS STORIES PRODUCED BY PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES OR MEDICAL FACILITIES


Have you noticed "health segments" aired on evening news broadcasts, which are little more than glorified commercials for prominent medical facilities? These segments use a professional spokeswoman who gives regular reports about new procedures offered by the sponsoring facility. There is no attempt to list possible complications or dangers from these treatments, only a 100% rosy picture of how it is supposed to help. We're surprised the FCC allows these info-commercials to be presented as if they were part of the news. After all, they are paid for by the sponsoring facility, produced by the facility, the spokesperson is picked by the same facility, and the information given is not checked for bias by the television station. That is pretty much a good description of a "commercial".

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group has said about these kinds of segments, "This is a blatant violation of accepted journalistic tenets". "Viewers will undoubtedly be deceived into believing this content is a product of the normal newsgathering process, which is supposed to be objective and non-biased - not driven by an economic agenda or marketing considerations."

Drugmakers' Gifts To Medical Doctors:

This is still a problem, even though it's been known to be a problem since at least the 1970s. Drug salesment still take MD's and their staffs out to lunch every week when they come to town, and it's proven that those doctors do tend to prescibe more of that salesman's drugs than other, less expensive drugs for the same condition. The drug companies also pay for Caribbean vacations and other free travel to attend drug conferences run by the manufacturers. These freebies need to be banned by law, according to many legislators in various states who are trying to pass such laws.

Drug Companies Write Checks To Doctors:

A medical doctor received a check for $10,000 in the mail, unsolicited. The doctor who received it from the drug maker Schering-Plough said it was made out to him personally in exchange for an attached "consulting" agreement that required nothing other than his commitment to prescribe the company's medicines. Schering-Plough is one of the world's biggest drug companies. Two other doctors said they had also received checks for the same reasons. One threw his away, and wouldn't give his name, because he didn't want to be drawn into the federal inquiry into the matter. These checks and others, some of them said to be for six-figured sums, have been investigated in Boston as part of a broad government crackdown on the drug industry's market tactics. Just about every big global drug company- including Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, and Bristol-Myers Squibb- received federal subpeonas. Most drug makers now spend twice as much marketing medicines as they do researching them