Stanford says doctors can't receive drug firm gifts

Contra Costa Times | AP ^ | 9/13/06 | Paul Elias

[Tarheel]

Part of my career in nursing was as an office nurse. The most our doc ever received were drug samples, notepads, pens, etc. Once in awhile pizza or a fruit basket was brought in for the entire staff.

The samples were a blessing for our poorer patients. We immediately earmarked certain samples for those patients who we knew had limited resources. More than one person in our small town owes their health to those samples.

[VOA]

"Gift giving creates a reciprocal obligation that is a powerful force, and
pharmaceutical companies know this very well," said David Magnus,
director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics who helped write the new policy...

I bet there are plenty of Stanford MDs (e.g., proctologists)
that are just praying that David Magnus makes an appointment!

OK, I'm not saying the MDs would act on any unpleasant thoughts...

[VOA]

The samples were a blessing for our poorer patients.

I'm only peripheral to the medical field, but that's always been
my impression.

My only beef is with the out-of-country flow of those samples to other countries.
Like ones where the potentates have plenty of cash, but their people
simply have to pray some visiting MD from the USA will show up with
some of those samples.
(I don't want those folks to suffer...it's just that their guvmint
wants you and me to foot the bill back here in the USA while they
fill their bank accounts in Switzerland)

[Quigley]

I agree with you that the samples have helped many people and I don't really have a problem with that. My only concern is the end cost of all the food these drug companies give to the doctors offices.

The doctor my wife works for now has never allowed any drug rep to even bring a bag a krispy kremes to the office but he does allow the free samples of drugs which he gives to patients who can't afford them.

[armourup]

I too am a nurse and never thought too much about the free pens ect. and free mexican and chinese. I also never thought too much about complaints of pharmaceutical companies controlling the medical community. HOWEVER....

Since my wife has developed late Lyme I've done a lot of research and now see how these companies control the medical research and even suppress other modalities and research for such.

For instance....a very good study found that hyperbaric therapy helped multiple sclerosis....and many late Lyme cases are misdiagnosed as MS....but that's another rant.

[wyattearp]

...and publishing articles in science journals that were ghost written by corporate authors.

They should be fired for that. Period. Publishing articles with their name when it is somebody else's work? That is obscene! How can it even be reviewed if nobody knows who really wrote it? What if somebody else wants to follow up on it with another line of research, and needs to ask a question of the author, only to find out that the author didn't do the research?