New England Journal of Medicine: Online Disclosure

The New England Journal of Medicine has a perspective on reporting physician relationships to industry and they are advocating a system similar to the Duke Clinical Research Institute, disclosure forms.

They note several institutions and one state currently has online reporting available including:

Minnesota Gifts Registry (which also include payments to veterinarians)

Cleveland Clinic (find a doctor)

Psychiatric Times Editorial Board

Trustees of the North American Menopause Society

He notes that Massachusetts is going to have more detail. 

Overall he makes a case for disclosure, and falls into the trap of using the typical junk science arguments but seems to be more reasoned than past authors in the major journals.

The author Robert Steinbrook, MD (physician journalist at Dartmouth with no research in his bio) calls for a simpler and more efficient alternative that has been advocated by Robert Califf of Duke University would be to establish a searchable national database. The database might be administered by the National Library of Medicine or another federal agency, and it might be analogous to ClinicalTrials.gov, the online registry of clinical trials, or opensecrets.org, the database of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in U.S. politics.

What a coincidence that the article came out on the same day as the introduction of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act 2009.

Online reporting may help dispel the myth that doctors are unduly biased by industry.  Physicians involved in doing the work (research, consulting and speaking), need to wake up and speak out for themselves, it is easy for politicians to attack you if you are silent.

New England Journal of Medicine:  Online Disclosure of Physician-Industry Relationships

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