• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Study highlights medical conflicts

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/2013/08/14/07/08/study-highlights-medical-conflicts
Most members of US panels that define conditions such as high blood pressure and dementia have financial links to drug companies, according to a new Australian study.

Bond University researchers raise questions about processes used for defining diseases and say about 75 per cent of members of US panels have declared conflicts of interest.
The study, under the direction of Professor Paul Glasziou, is part of wider research on over-diagnosis, where patients with mild symptoms or at low risk may be labelled as ill and receive treatments that may do them more harm than good.
"There is a clear conflict of interest," says lead author Ray Moynihan, a senior research fellow at the university.
"If a panel of experts decides to expand the definition of a condition, then that is widening the market for the companies those experts are working with."
He says US panels are influential globally, including in Australia.
"We are talking about common conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and depression."
One example is a 2003 panel that created a new diagnostic category called pre-hypertension or pre-high blood pressure.
"That instantly created a very large number of people who fitted into that category. A large proportion of members of the panel had extensive ties to companies that manufacture drugs for high blood pressure."
Mr Moynihan says the paper published in the journal PLOS Medicine does not make any judgments about the decisions of individual panels.
However, the authors hope it will provoke debate about whether the process of disease definition might need to be reformed.

I dont know much about this but u guys from the USA would you agree with whats being said about the medical conflict??
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
When doctors are getting kick backs from big pharma they will make up something to prescribe you medicine. That's what is driving our medical through the roof. Obamacare would have never had a chance if it was not for big pharma and the insurance industry.

I'm not a republican or a democrat as I think both parties how become terribly corrupt, but to give you a good case in point. South Carolinas governor Nikki Haley refused increased Medicaid money from Washington, but then turned around and cut the current Medicaid system by 50%. Now the hospitals have had to increase their fees just to stay in business. Medicaid has lost about 80% of it's doctors due to not receiving fees for over 6 months. She is truly without any political sense, but hey she is a governor and already a millionaire!!
 

WillowJ

คภภเє ɠรค๓թєl
Messages
4,940
Location
WA, USA
I dont know much about this but u guys from the USA would you agree with whats being said about the medical conflict??

A former editor of NEJM thinks so.

http://www.minnpost.com/second-opin...ig-pharma-has-corrupted-academic-institutions
“Increasingly, industry is setting the research agenda in academic centers, and that agenda has more to do with industry’s mission than with the mission of the academy. Researchers and their institutions are focusing too much on targeted, applied research, mainly drug development, and not enough on non-targeted, basic research into the causes, mechanisms, and prevention of disease.”
“In addition to distorting the research agenda, there is overwhelming evidence that drug-company influence biases the research itself.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhu...blication-and-peer-review-of-aristotle-trial/

This author is also quoted as saying,
Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the U.S. Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers and the medical profession itself
but I cannot find a reputable web page which prints this quote (although google claims it's found on this one) :
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/arc...th-about-the-drug-companies/?pagination=false


Such COIs reach the guidelines (generally speaking - not only ours), that page quotes a BMJ paper:
“For all guidelines, the overwhelming majority of committee chairs and cochairs have ties to industry, and selection of panellists with desired viewpoints can make a wished for outcome a foregone conclusion. Committee stacking may be one of the most powerful and important tools to achieve a desired outcome.”


Of course, not all conflicts are financial.


There's apparently an org which writes reports on these things:
http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Workforce/ConflictOfInterest.aspx
 

Hugocfs

Senior Member
Messages
121
Location
U.S.A.
When doctors are getting kick backs from big pharma they will make up something to prescribe you medicine. That's what is driving our medical through the roof. Obamacare would have never had a chance if it was not for big pharma and the insurance industry.

I'm not a republican or a democrat as I think both parties how become terribly corrupt, but to give you a good case in point. South Carolinas governor Nikki Haley refused increased Medicaid money from Washington, but then turned around and cut the current Medicaid system by 50%. Now the hospitals have had to increase their fees just to stay in business. Medicaid has lost about 80% of it's doctors due to not receiving fees for over 6 months. She is truly without any political sense, but hey she is a governor and already a millionaire!!

The keyword you used is corruption. It seems to permeate every facet of our society.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
I suppose what i dont understand is that they have to invent illnesses when our own illness which is legit with biomarkers that keep getting ignored and little research money put into. Our illness could make many doctors rich as well as big pharma, i just wish they would pull their heads out of their own arses and treat our illness properly. frustrating to think that they have to invent conditions while we are ignored.