Conflict of interest takes on an entirely new meaning in the latest on the ongoing issue regarding physician disclosures as it relates to medical device companies. Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley (Finance Cmte.) has been investigating the roles of Pharma and device companies and their ties to physicians who reap significant remunerations from the participation of those physicians in the promotion of their products.

At issue here at the University of Minnesota medical school is the involvement of one of its most highly regarded research and clinical faculty; perhaps more problematic than the more than $1M this physician pocketed from such arrangements is the apparent inaccurate and evasive testimony he gave to the senate committee invetigating the matter. Additionally, he may have misrepresented himself to the medical school’s own ethics committee.

Grassley’s work in defining the poorly understood world of physicians’ ethical violations and conflicts of interest of this nature is to be commended. Payouts such as this do nothing to increase the confidence of the American public in an administration committed to lowering the cost of healthcare in this country. The clandestine million dollar exchanges between well-profited device companies and physicians who “take the money and run” offer a tremendous example of the clash of physician morals, responsibility to the guaranteed delivery of healthcare to patients, and his or her duty to disclose honestly any ancillary fiduciary relationship to the public. | LINK | PDF summary of Finance Cmte. report

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