I hope you don't believe the implication of that cartoon. There's absolutely no question that drug reps and equipment reps make their living trying to influence physicians and hospitals, but the vast majority of physicians would never ever even remotely consider prescribing inappropriately on purpose. Further, although sometimes they're wrong, most reps believe in what they are advocating for.
Most decisions on what medications wind up on the formulary, or what devices get purchased, are made by administrators who aren't taking care of patients. The problem is that they tend to make purchases entirely on what is cheapest, and that is sometimes not the best thing for patients.
I'm not saying that there aren't bad unethical doctors, but I assure you that the vast majority are not.
