Thursday, May 20, 2010

University of Minnesota right up there

with Harvard, Stanford, Emory, Wash U...

(Unfortunately, it isn't for anything good)

Merrill Goozner writes a great blog about health care issues. Highly recommended. He is also on twitter, e.g.

GoozNews New post: Conflicts of Interest at NIH? Read the Clips http://tinyurl.com/37h88ja

Conflicts of Interest and NIH? Read the Clips

Dr. Francis Collins is about to release new conflict of interest rules for researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Sen. Charles Grassley's office has put out a compendium of news stories on the subject over the past two years. Most of the targets of the senator's investigations involved psychiatrists at major teaching hospitals. However, in the past year, orthopedic surgeons have increasingly been on his radar screen. Have a look:

Dr. David Polly, Professor and Chief of the Spine Service, University of Minnesota


-Snowbeck, Christopher, U surgeon's fees face new scrutiny from payer, 31 Jul 2009.

-Interview with Dr. Polly on Minnesota Public Radio, 31 Jul 2009.

-Star Tribune Editorial, "U Should Lead On Conflicts of Interest" Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, 15 Aug 2009.

-Meier, Barry, "2nd Medronic Consultant Draws Senate Scrutiny," New York Times, 29 Jul 2009

-Armstrong, David and Burton, Thomas M., "Spine Surgeon Didn't Disclose Medtronic Pay in Testimony," Wall Street Journal, 29 Jul 2009.

__________General Stories:

-Guess, Andy, "Researchers' Financial Disclosures in the Spotlight" Inside Higher Ed, 12 June 2008.

-Andrews, Wyatt, "Doctors Under the Influence?" CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, 26 June 2008. Nov 2008.

-Guess, Andy, "Accepting More Federal Oversight" Inside Higher Ed, 9 July 2008.

-Carey, Benedict and Harris, Gardiner, "Psychiatric Group Faces Scrutiny Over Drug Industry Ties" The New York Times, 12 July 2008.

-Firestone, Chaz and Kelsh, Chaz "Senator targets professor's ties to big pharma" Brown Daily Herald, 23 Sept 2008.

-Grant, Bob "Should Conflicts Mean No NIH Grant?" The Scientist.com, 29 Sept 2008.

-Han, Tiffany and Rizzo, Salvador, "A National Policy Issue, But Close to Home" Emory Wheel, 6 Nov 2008.

-Kaiser, Jocelyn, "Cardiologists Come Under the Glare of Senate Inquiry" Science, 24 Oct. 2008.

-Meier, Barry, "Ties Between Doctors and Stent Makers Queried" The New York Times, 16 Oct 2008.

-Silverman, Ed, "Boston Legal: TV Drama Or Reality Show?" Pharmalot, 29 Oct 2008.

-Ferro, Shane "USenate, U.S. Senators Revisit Conflict of Interest Policy" Columbia Spectator, 31 Oct 2008.

-Monastersky, Richard, "Hidden Payments to University Researchers Draw New Fire" The Chronicle of Higher Education

-Silverman, Ed, "Amid Senate Probe, NIH Changes Research Head" Pharmalot, 13 Nov 2008.

-Finkelstein, Joel B., "For Physician-Scientists, Conflict-of-Interest Issues are Complex" Science, 14 Nov 2008.

-Wu, June Q., "Students Push Comprehensive Hospital COI Policies" The Harvard Crimson, 21 Nov 2008.

-Waddington, Lynda, "Chalk Up Another One For Sen. Grassley" The Iowa Independent, 12 Feb 2009.

-Harris, Gardiner,"Research Center Tied to Drug Company" The New York Times, 24 Nov 2008.

-Abelson, Reed, "Cleveland Clinic Discloses Doctors' Industry Ties" The New York Times, 2 Dec 2008.

-Steenhuysen, Julie, "Doctors: Under the drug industry's influence?" Reuters, Feb 4, 2009.

-Jordan, Erin, "U of I to bar free drug samples, gifts" Des Moines Register, 23 Jan 2009.

-Burton, Thomas M. "Spine Doctors are Adopting Strict Rules on Payments" Wall Street Journal, 24 Jan 2009.

-Ember, Sydney, "Research Policy Being Reviewed" The Brown Daily Herald, 2 Feb 2009.

-Steenhuysen, Julie, "Psychiatrists may cut some ties to drug firms" Reuters, 8 Feb 2009.

-Hill, Miriam, "Charles Grassley and the FDA" Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 Feb 2009.

-Giles, Jim, "Exposing the links between doctors and Big Pharma" NewScientist, 25 Feb 2009.

-Kaiser, Jocelyn, "Private Money, Public Disclosure" Science Magazine, 23 Jun 2009.

-Armstrong, David, "Surgeon Faces Probe of Research" The Wall Street Journal, 22 Jul 2009.

-Borger, Kate, "Senator Grassley Investigates Emory Researcher," Emory Wheel, 27 Aug 2009.

____________Editorials and Op-Eds:

-"Hidden Drug Payments at Harvard" The New York Times, 10 June 2008.

-Relman, Arnold S., "Improper Rewards of Research" The Boston Globe, 12 July 2008.

-"Credibility Crisis in Pediatric Psychiatry" Nature Neuroscience, Sep 2008.

-"Accountable Academics" The Brown Daily Herald, 24 Nov 2008.

-"Drugs and Disclosure" The New York Times, 10 Oct 2008.

-Warner, Judith "Diagnosis: Greed" The New York Times: Domestic Disturbances, 9 Oct 2008.

-"More Than One Bad Apple" Nature, 15 Oct 2008.

-"Time to Disinfect Research Dollars" Atlanta Journal Constitution, 12 Oct 2008.

-"Guarding Emory's Ethics" Emory Wheel, 6 Nov 2008.

-Restuccia, Robert, "Let Public See Doctors' Ties to Drug Companies" Atlanta Journal Constitution, 3 Nov 2008.

-"Defusing a time bomb" Nature Biotechnology, Oct 2008.

-"Expert or Shill?" The New York Times, 30 Nov 2008.

-Angell, Marcia, "Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption" The New York Review of Books, 15 Jan 2009.

-"Drug firms' manufactured buzz," Boston Globe Editorial, 25 Aug 2009.



About Gooze, from his blog:

MERRILL GOOZNER spent more than 25 years in the news business as a foreign correspondent, economics writer and investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune and other publications. He reported from over a dozen countries while posted in Chicago, Tokyo, New York and Washington. His jobs included Chief Asia Correspondent (1991-95), New York Financial Correspondent (1996-1998) and Chief Economics Correspondent (1998-2000).

Like Benjamin Franklin, he spent his early years in the business in the printing trade. His freelance writing in recent years has appeared in numerous national publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, The Scientist, Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, The American Prospect and the Washington Monthly. He’s won six Peter Lisagor awards; a Michigan Journalism Fellowship (1995-96); and a Kaiser Media Fellowship (2001-02), and in 2008 was named a Distinguished Alumni of the University of Cincinnati College of Arts and Sciences.

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