The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Friday, 18 April 2014

94% of physicians have a financial relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. Could this affect their judgement when prescribing drugs?

This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine 2007 Apr 26;356(17):1742-50
 
Study title and authors:
A national survey of physician-industry relationships.
Campbell EG, Gruen RL, Mountford J, Miller LG, Cleary PD, Blumenthal D.
Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital-Partners Health Care System and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ecampbell@partners.org
 
This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17460228

This study investigated the financial associations of physicians with the pharmaceutical and other medically related industries. The study included 3,167 physicians.

The study found:
(a) 83% of physicians received gifts from the pharmaceutical industry (including food and beverages in the workplace and tickets to cultural and sporting events).
(b) 78% of physicians received drug samples from the pharmaceutical industry.
(c) 35% of physicians received reimbursement for costs associated with professional meetings or continuing medical education from the pharmaceutical industry.
(d) 28% of physicians received payments for consulting, giving lectures, or enrolling patients in trials from the pharmaceutical industry.
(e) Overall, 94% of physicians reported some type of relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.

Most physicians (94%) reported some type of relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.

Could this affect their judgement when they prescribe drugs or give advice?