medical device companies

We just posted an update on the ongoing cozy relationship with medical device companies, in particular, those that make prosthetic hip and knee joints, and some orthopedic surgeons.  Some surgeons, including many prominent academic leaders and practitioners, have been paid huge amounts, and have often failed to make more than the most minimal disclosure to their patients, or to the audiences of their talks or the readers of their ostensibly scholarly articles.  Deferred prosecution agreeme

We have posted frequently about threats to the integrity of the clinical evidence-based, and to the practice of evidence-based medicine.  In particular, we have discussed how research may be manipulated in favor of vested interests, or suppressed when the results do not favor such interests.

(University of Rochester Medical Center) The University of Rochester Medical Center has announced the creation of a new center that will assist researchers studying the electrical activity of the heart with the goal of improving drug safety, understanding cardiac arrhythmias, and developing new electrocardiograph technologies.

The Center for Quantitative Electrocardiology and Cardiac Safety -- funded by a $2.3 million grant from NIH -- brings together an international network of academic researchers, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and government regulators.

Everyone now and then we get to comment on good news.

In the New York Times today, Gina Kolata's article was entitled, "Citing Ethics, Some Doctors are Rejecting Industry Pay." The main points were:

With little fanfare, a small number of prominent academic scientists have made a decision that was until recently all but unheard of. They decided to stop accepting payments from food, drug and medical device companies.

On the Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma blog, Dr Howard Brody expanded his focus a bit to include medical device companies.

He posted about the ongoing investigations of orthopedic surgeons' financial relationships to the manufacturers of prosthetic joints.