The Invisible Hands Guiding Doctors' Continuing Education [1]
Submitted by Bob Burton [2] on
Ray Moynihan reveals that while educational events have been advertised to Australian medical practitioners as being independent, behind the scenes sponsoring drug companies were being offered the chance to nominate speakers and topics relating to their drugs. At the center of the controversy is Healthed [3], which describes itself as "one of Australia's most popular and respected providers of education for health professionals." In 2006 one drug company, CSL, agreed to a "platinum sponsorship" package costing $A18,000 for four seminars to help promote its pain relief drug, Tramal. In an email, CSL wrote to Healthed founder, Dr Ramesh Manocha, asking that he "determine the speaker's opinion re: Tramal as I would like to ensure he positions it appropriately." In response Manocha wrote that he would "reconfirm opinion of headache speaker regarding Tramal to ensure balanced presentation."