How Do You Ask Your Doctor if He Gets Paid by the Drug Industry?

Published On: August 18th, 2009

Pill You’re in your doctor’s office and you want to know how whether he or she has any financial ties with drug or device makers. How do you ask that question?

That’s the sensitive situation the Washington Post presents this morning. It can be awkward because patients don’t want to offend or alienate their docs.

Be inquisitive, not accusatory. Daniel Carlat, a psychiatrist who has written about his own experience getting paid by the drug industry and also publishes the Carlat Psychiatry Report, suggests saying to your doctor that you’ve heard a lot about ties between doctors and the drug industry, and asking whether it happens.

Of course, it’s becoming a little easier to get the information other ways as well. If your doc is part of an academic medical center, you might check out their Web site, because some are starting to list their docs with industry affiliations. Several pharmaceutical companies, like Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, are or will be posting this information as well.

And if your doctor does work with industry, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, notes the Post.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that it is potentially beneficial [to the public] for industry to interact with physicians, because someone needs to develop these drugs,” Steve Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic told the Post. “I work with many pharmaceutical companies, and I believe it is my responsibility as a physician to facilitate the development of new therapies.”

Nissen has also argued for tighter caps on funding for medical societies from drug and device makers.

Image: iStockphoto

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How Do You Ask Your Doctor if He Gets Paid by the Drug Industry?

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