Marketing of products is something all surgeons must live with on a daily basis. Representatives visiting and discussing new products is appropriate. Free giveaways are not, writes Professor Guy Maddern.
Doctors
Diary of a Surgeon: Doctors on the market?
Victorian abortion law: overriding the conscience of doctors
Victorian doctors who oppose abortion are legally obliged to be involved. The law doesn’t just legalise abortion, it silences dissent, writes Sinclair Davidson.
Why doctors can’t decline an abortion
Last years abortion law changes in Victoria raise some interesting ethical issues for doctors. Even doctors that are morally anti-abortion must now legally participate in it, explains Julian McGauran.
Tired doctors need a complex solution, not simplistic headlines
The debate about long working hours and the vexed issue of extended shifts again has those concerned in a tailspin, writes Professor Drew Dawson.
The First Physician: when your patient is the president
The leader of the free world is too important to be brought down by a case of the sniffles, so the US President — and his inner circle — are monitored around the clock by a team of doctors, nurses and assistants. Meet the people who have taken some very important lives in their hands.
Doctors criticise Rudd’s hospital tours
Doctors are too busy to play tour guides for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s hospital tours and they’re coming out in complaint at Rudd’s lack of understanding of the depth of the hospital funding crisis.
Time for MDs to get out of bed with drug companies
Despite their closeness, doctors and drug companies are becoming increasingly uneasy bedfellows, with calls from the very top of the global medical profession for a major clean-up.
Money: the most potent medical evidence there is
Imagine if much of the evidence that governed treatment decisions by doctors was based on a carefully selected release of studies designed and funded by the companies that are trying to bring their new and very expensive treatments to market…. writes Dr Ian Haines.
Medicalising female s-xual disorder in the age of V-agra
As Pfizer celebrates a decade of Viagra, many companies are racing to develop drugs for what they regard as the potentially lucrative “female s-xual dysfunction” market, writes Ray Moynihan.
Why sick country people are on a highway to nowhere
As petrol prices soar, eligible country patients who have to travel for specialist care are being reimbursed at a miserly rate of between 13 and 17 cents per kilometre, reports Melissa Sweet.
Should there be national registration for public health workers?
Australia is moving towards national registration for core health and medical professionals, but there are no safeguards regarding public health officials, writes Peter Sainsbury.
Beware the Gardasil hype: an industry insider
Despite the hype, there’s a lot we don’t yet know about Gardasil, writes former drug sales rep Kimberly Elliott.
Why exhausted NSW rural doctors have shut up shop
On Wednesday afternoon the two GPs at Dorrigo in northern NSW went on strike, closing their surgery. Dr Horst Herb, who has worked in Dorrigo for six years, explains how it happened.
Global PR firm outed as force behind blood clot awareness campaign
The international PR firm Fleishman-Hillard, working with drug company money, is helping run a high-profile campaign to raise public awareness about blood clots in Australia, reports Ray Moynihan.
Senior doctors “selling” drugs for $5000 a day
A long time drug industry insider in the United States says leading specialists can earn up to $5000 a day, for “educating” their peers on behalf of Big Pharma, writes Ray Moynihan.
US medical schools to end drug company gifts to doctors?
The rampant wining and dining of doctors may soon be a thing of the past, if the latest recommendations of a powerful medical group are to be implemented, writes Ray Moynihan.
Bill Glasson: We need a new type of health professional
Australia urgently needs to develop new ways of delivering health care, writes former AMA head Dr Bill Glasson.
Drug industry reveals its daily orgy of wining and dining
The “education” of doctors is a $60 million a year dining experience and drug companies are picking up the tab. Ray Moynihan reports.
How to disentangle doctors and drug companies
Apart from the benefactors and beneficiaries, few will anymore try and defend the way drug companies wine and dine our doctors. Around the globe the public debate is finally moving away from what’s wrong with the duchessing of doctors, to what on earth we can do about it.
“Volunteer” doctors on the federal payroll
It’s been widely reported, in the general and medical media, that around 600 doctors have volunteered to take part in the Federal Government’s initiative in the NT. This doesn’t mean, however, that the doctors will be working for free.
Evidence is in: Kevin Andrews must be sacrificed
It is a difficult task to ensure that protecting freedoms doesn’t destroy those same freedoms. Which is what has made the case of Mohamed Haneef such a dangerous failure for John Howard – the actions taken and the words spoken have given the impression that the Coalition Government is incapable of getting the balance right, argues Richard Farmer.
Drugs, cycling, and SBS: the final word
Cycling has become a blood sport, 21st century style, and the effect is dire: those who love the sport enough to withstand its tortures for a fleeting shot at its glories are those killing it from within, virus-like.
Doctors and terror: an established pathology
With every doctor in the west named Patel or Habib now facing the prospect that their patients will be staring carefully at their white coats, checking for the outlines of a bomb-jacket, much bewilderment has been expressed at the juxtaposition of the healing profession and the delivery of death.
A pipe dream solution to doctor-drug company nosh-ups
Former pharamaceutical industry employee Peter Wildblood outlines how to cirucmvent the often too-cosy relationships of doctors and drug companies.
Time to name names at doctor-drug company nosh-ups
Drug companies will now have to disclose the details of all their wining and dining of doctors, but we still won’t know the names of the doctors who attend these drug company events.
