With everyone anxiously awaiting Congress to return to the healthcare debate, industry is wasting no time to assert its crucial and essential role in helping patients in America. For example, last week, Medtronic, Inc., CEO Bill Hawkins “defended the company's longstanding practice of collaborating with physicians.”
Mr. Hawkins speech, which was delivered at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, recognized the essential need for industry to work “with doctors to improve devices and commercialize inventions in order to advance medical technology.” We could not agree more.
Interestingly, instead of focusing on Medtronic’s accomplishments, media coverage such as Minnesota’s Star Tribune focused on the ‘numbers game.’ The Tribune selectively chose Medtronic’s relationship with Dr. David Polly, the head of spine surgery at the
Mr. Hawkins accordingly clarified that “the bulk of the money Medtronic pays to doctors is for royalties related to their inventions.” In addition, there are also "service arrangements" for the company to pay doctors “who offer advice on improving devices or help train other doctors.” While this practice is not only legal, and always disclosed, it is also crucial for patients and consumers to understand before making a decision for choosing such devices. Think about cars for example: Would you want to go buy a brand new car whose brakes had never been tested?
Medical devices are the same importance, only the value in your life is much clearer: if a device is not tested by doctors, and other physicians are not trained to use them, are patients really to expect that a doctor will get it right the first time? With the way malpractice works in today’s world, what physician would actually perform such an operation with a device he or she was never trained with, and for that matter, no physician received training for from the company who designed and tested it?
Mr. Hawkins explained industry’s position perfectly: the medical device business is a “technique-intensive business." Just as medical students get their experience doing procedures, treating patients, and establishing their bedside manner in medical schools and residencies, physicians establish their expertise, habits, and standard of care for treatment by working with industry.
If the close relationship between device manufacturers and the physicians who place them inside you was not a confident boost already, Hawkins also acknowledged that “Medtronic monitors industry-physician relationships closely to avoid potential conflicts of interest.” In fact, he declared that "Medtronic, as the industry leader, has played a strong, ongoing role in working to create new standards for financial transparency and conflict-of-interest disclosure — and will continue to do so.'' How many CEO’s of banks and financial institutions would have said that during their annual stockholder meetings over the past two years?
Furthermore, Medtronic, Inc. also announced that it supports “federal legislation that would publicly disclose consulting relationships between doctors and drug and medical device companies, and has also stated it will post details of its consulting agreements on its website in 2010.” Mr. Hawkins also emphasized the device industry’s role in healthcare overhaul through “the way medical technology provides value to patients suffering from chronic disease, batting down the notion that medical devices merely add to overall health care costs.” He recognized how the device industry is “an important part of the solution to today's health care challenges” because medical devices designed by industry “enable people to return to work sooner, reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, prolong life, and restore people to fuller, more productive lives."
Mr. Hawkins also noted how Medtronic is able to provide such benefits through “evidence-based research, minimally invasive technologies and remote patient management systems that curb the need for expensive doctor and hospital visits.”
In the end, “the medical device industry makes up only about 6 percent of all health care expenditures, and its prices have increased less than half the consumer price index in the past five to 10 years. As a result, patients must realize that industry is in the business of making people healthier, not just making money. Americans should reason with careful judgment that industry working with physicians is a not only a way to guarantee a product beyond testing, evidence, and science, it is a crucial part of development for treatment. This relationship is essential for establishing life saving devices and technologies that will not only lead to healthier lives, but happier outcomes for all parties involved.
By industry taking their products to physicians, companies are ensuring that patient’s voices are heard because through industry physician collaboration, safety, quality, and effectiveness for patients are all the main outcomes of any such relationships.