Opinion
Crackdown on detailer visits a joke given what academic researchers get
LETTER — Posted Nov. 13, 2006
Regarding "Some medical schools say no to drug reps' free lunch" (Article, Oct. 9): The new policy at Stanford is laughable. The real culprits causing bias in medicine are the academic physicians who receive substantial compensation, airfare, hotels, etc. to research and promote medications. Their bias permeates the medical literature and amplifies it like a PCR does DNA.
I challenge the academic medical centers to release the compensation that their staff receive from the pharmaceutical industry, both directly or indirectly. The results probably would be staggering.
Andre Ettinger, MD, Pasadena, Calif.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/11/13/edlt1113.htm.