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A recent NPR editorial from Dr. Leana Wen set off our Sermo physicians. Wen’s piece suggested that even the smallest token accepted from pharmaceutical companies by physicians would be enough to influence what they prescribe to patients. Yes, even something as innocuous as a pen or a sandwich.
In an effort to respond, the physicians created a poll to figure out just where they draw the line of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. They will be further expanding on this in their own rebuttal op-ed but we wanted to share some of their thoughts now and the results of the poll.
Some reactions from our physicians …
“Not once in 23 years have I ever received a penny from prescribing any particular drug, nor has any other doctor I’ve ever known.”
“Sure there may be a possible few unscrupulous doctors in bed with the pharmacy companies, just as there are a few unscrupulously selling narcotics for fun and profit. But these are the vast minority of physicians …”
“She needs to spend a month working with the poor in the Bottoms of Columbus, Ohio to find out what real doctoring is like, or a week with me or any other primary care doctor anywhere, or better yet spend a week each with a dozen of us in different varieties of practices, seeing firsthand how much our pharmacy ties actually influence how we treat patients (zilch!)”
The purpose of the Sermo blog is to let our physicians speak for themselves. We’ll therefore be holding off on full comment until our doctors write their rebuttal. We have also reached out to Dr. Wen and will be speaking with her soon to elaborate on her position. If you’re an M.D. or D.O. we’d love to have you join the conversation inside Sermo. So far over 400 comments have been posted on just this topic!
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