The Senate Aging Committee is hosting a hearing this Wednesday July 29th at 2:00pm in Room 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington DC titled: Medical Research and Education: Higher Learning or Higher Earning.
According to the Senators Press Release and other sources panelist include:
- Lew Morris, General Counsel, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General – to discuss options for CME practices
- Dr. Steven Nissen, Chair, Cleveland Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Medicine — to talk about perspectives in Rothman 2009 JAMA Paper titled: Professional Medical Associations and Their Relationships with Industry a Proposal for Controlling Conflicts of Interest.
· Dr. Eric Campbell, Associate Professor and Director of Research, Institute of Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. To talk from the IOM perspectives (IOM Report on Conflicts of Interest in Medical Education, Research and Practice). Eric has made his carrier on publishing anti collaboration articles and stated to me late last year at an IOM meeting “I will find bias in CME”
· Jack Rusley, Chair, Culture of Medicine Action Committee, American Medical Student Association; Student, Brown University Alpert School of Medicine to talk from the perspective of their “Pharm Free” brand. (Not sure what they expect to hear from in a group of medical students who’s only life experience includes going to school, but hey college students are always going to be radical about something.
Panel Two:
- Dr. Thomas Stossel, Director, Translational Medicine Division and Senior Physician, Hematology Division, Harvard University, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital; Leadership, Association of Clinical Researchers and Educators (ACRE).
- Dr. James Scully, Medical Director and CEO, American Psychiatric Association (APA) also a participant in the JAMA paper Professional Medical Associations and Their Relationships with Industry a Proposal for Controlling Conflicts of Interest.
- Dr. Murray Kopelow, President, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to explain ACCME Policy and Enforcement
According to the Senators Press Release:
The focus will be on conflicts of interest in the fields of Continuing Medical Education (CME) and other medical research. As with many professions, physicians are required to participate in CME in order to maintain their license. In recent years, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries have increased their funding of CME, as well as other medical education programs, medical schools, and professional medical associations. The industries also pay physicians directly for their service as educational consultants. According to the Institute of Medicine, industry funding for accredited CME quadrupled from $302 million to $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2006.
This influx of funding has raised concerns that CME and other medical research and educational activities, meant to keep doctors updated on the latest scientific advances and best practices in medicine, could be unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical and device industries. The Aging Committee will hear from a number of well-respected witnesses on the topic and consider recommendations for reform of the CME delivery system. The hearing will also highlight the ways in which some organizations are mitigating industry influence, while also enabling legitimate physician-industry relationships to flourish.
Senator Kohl, along with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), is cosponsor of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (S. 301), which would require the pharmaceutical and medical device industries to publicly report payments and gifts to doctors. Recently, identical provisions to those in S.301 were included in the health care reform discussion documents released by the Senate Finance Committee. Similar provisions were also included in the House tri-committee health reform bill, which also includes disclosure of industry payments to medical schools, sponsors of continuing medical education programs, and organizations of health care professionals.
Staff of Members of Congress, often pride themselves on coming up with cutie titles for hearings.
In the case of Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee and his staff pride themselves on real winners. In their eyes you are either a villain or hero, at least in one case last sessions hero (Reverse Mortgages: Polishing not Tarnishing the Golden Years ) became this year’s villain (Reverse Mortgages: Leaving Seniors and Taxpayers on the Hook?). So when he titled this weeks hearing on Medical Education and Research it was not surprising that his punch line was Higher Learning or Higher Earning.
How fair and balanced that hearing will be? Do you think his goal is to show the value those physicians who work with industry to develop life saving medication? Given the title do you think there is a certain amount of jealousy simply because those physicians who work with industry earn more than those who don’t?
The CME industry saw a $200 million drop in revenue last year, just when funds are need to keep vital educational programs going, Senator Kohl seems to be working to even further reduce this figure.
The hearing promises to be a lively one. Let the Games begin….