Nope, mine had 0. You are an awesome little detective!!!!!

Wow Island- This is an amazing tool ! Thanks for posting! The EP that did my ablations has been paid $18,000 over 2009 and 2010 from GlaxoSmithKline for speaking. This is very interesting information to know!

I bookmarked that website. Mine had zero.

I noticed that Pfizer pays alot out. Dr Mandrola had zero.

Alot of the numbers are small.

IslandLuvr: We could open up a detective agency. :-)

petey

IslandLuvr ------ Their are a few web sites that spill the beans on my follow the money theory. Great find and thank you so much. NSR to all Rick

I checked on my EP and he was "0" as well. But I did find that an EP I was referred to in WPB, Dr. George Platt received $297.00 back in 2010 from Pfizer (for meals). Lol. Maybe someone should contact NPR so they can do a story on this. ;)

Mine is clear at 0 but Johns Hopkins who he works for and teaches at received well over a million and two hundred thousand dollars.

Is it unethical for a doctor to receive money from a drug company that is sponsoring a conference where he/she is the keynote speaker? I'm not sure. I guess if the doctor is speaking about the company's drugs and is endorsing them but doesn't believe in them or prescribe them, it is unethical. If he/she is educating other doctors on a pacemaker or ablation catheters that he/she uses and highly recommends, it is a different story. They do deserve compesation for their time and knowledge. I know at my place of employment, we cannot accept lunch, pens, or any other items from drug or medical equipment companies. We cannot use or have any items that have any company logo on it. In the past, companies would provide lunch and educate us on a piece of equipment that they hoped the hospital would purchase. Those days are gone. Do other businesses adhere to such strict policies with regards to vendors?

The Fed Gov pretty much follows was you describe RN52.

IslandLuvr: When I first looked at the title of your thread (and the fact the you posted it), I was seeing the word "Pradaxa" instead of "Payola"! :-)

petey

IslandLuvr,
Thanks very much for the detective work and the site. It is a great tool to see where a doctor's mind is and what kinds of drugs he/she supports. Now, that said, I do NOT see anything wrong for a doctor to get paid by a drug company for speaking about a drug. Why not. The doctor should get paid for her/his time. We all do get compensated for our time.

The problem I have is the unreported paid vacations for the whole family if the doctor prescribe a lot of a particular drug. To me, that is a conflict of interest between the doctor and the patients. The paid vactions might incentivize the doctors to prescribe a particular drug even if it is NOT really needed for a patient. That is the biggest problem that I see between drug makers and the doctors.

For the above reason, the fedral gov has strict rules for accepting gifts from any vendor as RN52 pointed out.

By the way, my doctor/specialists have received lots of money from drug companies for speaking. I am OKAY with that since they never pushed any particular drug on me. In another words, they were NOT working hard to get that vacation from the drug company, LOL. So, they were pretty moral with excellent ethics.

Another way of looking at doctors who speak and get paid is that "somebody" has to spread the word about a particular drug (a product). Doctors are the best individuals since they can tell others about their experience with the drug.

Please let me know if I am in the left field on this one and missing something here :-)

Scott

I think you are Right on Target. I totally agree! Good thinking, Thank You Scott!!!

Scott: I don't think that you are in left field at all. Many pharmaceutical companies also make medical equipment. Doctors often speak at conferences where they not only educate other doctors about drugs, but also the use of medical/surgical equipment. I have no problem with them getting compensation from the pharmaceutical/medical equipment company. I do not want any doctor "pushing" any particular drug for incentive bonuses and or vacations and thus far have not experienced it. My EP has received money from a drug company for speaking and I am fine with it. He has always been a square shooter with me.

I have problems with it. Getting paid by a medical device company or pharma company will prejudice the doctor. If a doctor wants to work for big pharma.. Fine... Quit your practice like many do, and become a full time employee or professional consultant,

For example.. Journalists are not allowed to accept gifts, period. Doing so would result in immediate termination. It is a conflict of interest. Many give of their time to moderate seminars or serve as panel members. They are not allowed to get paid.

Why should an MD be any different? Does the MD stand for "m deity?" is their time more valuable than the karate instructor who gives free self defense lectures to the community or the nurse who volunteers to give free vaccines at a free health clinic?

IslandLuvr,
Doctors are different from journalists. Doctors bring field experience to the speach for a device or a drug because they have used it and truly they can talk about the results from their own experience. That is valuable to other doctors. However, if they quit and join a drug/device company, they can NOT talk about their own experience any more.

I can tell you from my own experience, as a professional person, it was very hard to become prejudice about a component to be used for a product if it was not the best for the application at the time. I imagine most doctors do the same. They talk about a drug or device because it has worked well for their patients.

I hope you are convinced :-)

Nope, not convinced. :)

I know someone who is a doctor.. he's an immunologist. Quit his practice and is now working full time for a drug company. And, btw.. he's making a bundle of dough. And... he says he got out just in the nick of time, before Obamacare.. but I digress.

He can give his expertise to the drug company and not have the conflict of interest.

Island,
You are tough :-) I think we have to agree to disagree on this one.

I am sure why a doctor should be against the Obamacare, why?

RN52, thank for sharing your inside knowledge about the medical conferences. I do not know anything about them since medicine is not my filed. May be you can also tell us why a doctor should be against the Obamacare. Thanks.