Notes
Slide Show
Outline
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Science, Ethics and Profits:
An Editor’s Perspective
  • H. David Crombie, M.D.
  • Editor, Connecticut Medicine
  • NAHSL   October 16, 2006
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Medical Ethics
  • The Four Principles
      • Autonomy
      • Beneficence
      • Non-maleficence
      • Justice
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Elements in the Discussion
  • The Medical-Industrial Complex
  • Honesty and Integrity to Determine when the evidence is in
  • Dealing with Bias
  • Direct-to-consumer marketing
  • Protection of Human Subjects
  • Regulation: Self or Government?
  • “Do No Harm”
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Medical-Industrial Complex
  TOTAL: $1 Trillion
  • $94 Billion for Biomedical Research(5.6%)
  • increased 2X past decade
  • Funding Sources
  • 57% Biotech and Pharm companies
  • 28% NIH
  • 15% Other
  • -State and local govts
  • -not-for-profits
  • -non-NIH federal gov.
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Big Profits
  • 1980 Bayh-Dole Act -- Universities and corporations could patent discoveries
  • Research –Publicly supported- a profitable, salable good
  • High stakes rewards for favorable reports
  • Opportunities for fraud, withholding adverse outcomes
  • Pressure to gain early drug approval
  • Doctors as consultants, stockholders, owners, and advisors to Wall Street
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Determining Honesty and Integrity
  • Harvard- Dr. John Darsee
  • Pittsburgh-Dr. Breuning
  • MIT-Dr. Imanishi-Kari
  • Norway-Dr. Jon Sudbo
  • Hwang Woo Suk


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Editorial Approaches
  • Choosing peer reviewers
  • Knowledge of statistics and epidemiology
  • Provide supplemental literature
  • Blinding of authors
  • Masking of co-reviewers
  • Open vs. closed review
  • Internet pre-and post-publication
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Medical Professionalism
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Conflict of Interest

  • A set of conditions in which professional judgment regarding a primary interest
  •    (patient welfare or validity of research) tends to be unduly influenced by a secondary interest (like financial gain).
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Bias and Conflicts of Interest
  • Direct employment of researcher or family
  • Consultancy
  • Company ownership
  • Stock ownership
  • Honoraria
  • Provider of expert testimony
  • Outright gifts
  • Expense-paid trips (ski/golf)
  • Free meals
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Conflict of Interest
  • Era of tacit prohibition now succeeded by era of disclosure
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Recommendations
  • No drug samples
  • No gifts
  • No proposed changes to drug formularies by MDs with a financial stake
  • No direct support of CME
  • No travel funds direct to doctors
  • No speaker bureaus
  • No ghostwriting services
  • Brennan et al,2006
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Direct-to-consumer
advertising
  • Rise of autonomy/patient as decision maker
  • Decline of MD as “learned intermediary”
  • Patient as promoter of drugs to the doctor
  • Drug as panacea rather than comprehensive approach
  • Newer drug widely requested without appropriate need
  • Release by FDA before adverse side effects adequately assessed
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Protection of Human Subjects
  • 1974  Response to Tuskegee –Natl Res Act
  • Created National Commission for Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behaviorial Research
  • Belmont (Maryland) report published in 1979 ”Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the   Protection of Human Subjects of Research”
    • Respect for persons   “informed consent”
    • Beneficence—risks and benefits
    • Justice—selection of subjects
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The Values of the
Medical Profession
  • Service
  • Advocacy
  • Altruism
  • Application of special knowledge
  • Standards set and maintained internally
  • Humanism
  • Long-term goals
  • Meeting society’s needs