University of Minnesota is in ethics trouble again

"In May 2006, University of Minnesota spine surgeon David Polly urged a Senate committee to fund research into the severe arm, leg and spine injuries suffered by soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere.

Dr. Polly told the committee he was testifying on behalf of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and referenced his prior work caring for soldiers as a surgeon at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

What Dr. Polly didn't disclose during his testimony was that his trip to Washington was paid for by Medtronic Inc., the big medical-device maker whose bone growth product, called Infuse, has been used to treat soldiers, according to company records.

Dr. Polly and colleagues in Minnesota subsequently received a $466,644 Department of Defense grant for a two-year study beginning in February 2007 to evaluate Infuse in cases where an injury is also infected, according to the university.

Dr. Polly was paid $1.14 million by Medtronic for consulting services from 2004 to 2007.

Details of Dr. Polly's consultant billing were provided by Medtronic to Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has been scrutinizing the relationship between academics and industry."

Read more in The Wall Street Journal. See also this article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

When drug trials go terribly wrong

Christopher Lane of Northwestern University, the author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, blogs for Psychology Today about the death of Dan Markingson in a University of Minnesota drug trial.

Dr. Whistleblower

"Dr. Romney C. Andersen, a Walter Reed Army Medical Center surgeon, was surprised last summer when his neighbor, a fellow doctor, congratulated him on a new medical journal study bearing his name.

What study?” Dr. Andersen asked. Soon, he was not the only person asking questions. Army officials, alerted by Dr. Andersen, began an investigation. They uncovered an apparent case of falsified research by a doctor who had befriended Dr. Andersen when they both worked at Walter Reed, treating American soldiers severely injured in Iraq."

Read more in the New York Times.

Give Blood Pressure Drugs to All

Blood-pressure-lowering drugs should be offered to everyone, regardless of their blood pressure level, as a safeguard against coronary heart disease and stroke, researchers who conducted a meta-analysis of 147 randomized trials (comprising 958,000 people) conclude in the May 19 issue of BMJ.

“Guidelines on the use of blood-pressure-lowering drugs can be simplified so that drugs are offered to people with all levels of blood pressure,” write Drs Malcolm R Law and Nicholas Wald (Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, UK). “Our results indicate the importance of lowering blood pressure in everyone over a certain age, rather than measuring it in everyone and treating it in some.”

“Whatever your blood pressure, you benefit from lowering it further,” Law told heartwire . “Everyone benefits from taking blood-pressure-lowering drugs. There is no one who does not benefit because their blood pressure is so-called normal.”

Six years ago, Law and Wald advocated the use of a polypill--containing a statin, three blood-pressure-lowering drugs (each at half the standard dose), folic acid, and aspirin--which they maintained could prevent heart attacks and stroke if taken by everyone 55 years and older and by everyone with existing cardiovascular disease.

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Opening up the FDA?

The FDA may see some changes soon, says the New York Times. "The goal is to open up a system in which the agency failed to inform the public that a widely prescribed heartburn drug was especially toxic to babies; that a diabetes medicine and a painkiller increased heart attack risks; and that antidepressants increased suicidal thoughts and behavior in children and teenagers."

Why is McAllen, Texas the most expensive place in America to get medical care?

Atul Gawande explains why expensive care is often the worst care in The New Yorker.

webcast your brain surgery

The rising popularity of Twittering and webcasting live from the operating room. Hospitals use it as a marketing tool...includes a quote from Jeffrey Kahn.

"Corinne insisted, I have no moral compass. The most damning illustration has to do with her (now former) job as a pharmaceutical sales rep, where she said she knowingly sold drugs to physicicans that she knew would kill people. 'Selling drugs is a lie. I sold drugs that I knew damn well—I sold Vioxx for Merck before it got taken off the market for killing people. I knew damn well it was dangerous; I went around telling them to write it. There’s a lot of serious lying I’ve done in my life,' she said. That’s okay, Corinne told me, because 'I’m doing a job. For me, in that case, Merck told me to go out and sell drug even though I had hesitation about it. It’s not for me to say.'"

Read more about this drug rep/Survivor-contestant here.

The dangers of new drugs

A Cornell psychiatrist explains how his residents ignore proven drugs in favor of the cool new ones, in the New York Times.

Pass/Fail

According to a study at the University of Virginia, medical students on a pass-fail grading system perform as well as those on an A through F scale, and they have fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Read more here.

Pharma CEO paychecks

Which pharma CEOs are paid the most? The list is topped by Bill Weldon at Johnson and Johnson, who was paid $29.4 million last year. Next in line were the CEOs of Abbott, Wyeth and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Fierce Pharma reports.

The politics of desperation

"A Virginia family’s campaign for access to an unproven drug highlights the challenges many terminally ill patients face in the search for treatment." Read more in the NY Times.

Electroboy versus Bristol Myers Squibb

NIH says maybe, maybe not

"The National Institutes of Health, after months of pressure, announced last week that it would consider imposing tougher regulations aimed at reducing financial conflicts of interest in scientific research. But it might actually not do anything."

Read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Google wants to know if you're sick

"Google is attempting to find out how much of a role Internet searches play in the self-diagnosis process". Here.

Medtronic, the Defense Department and the University of Minnesota

The Center for Public Integrity reports.

Slate founder says: ban lawsuits against the device industry

Michael Kinsley warned Congress that "lawsuits would prevent patients from getting access to devices. Identifying himself as a grateful customer of the pharmaceutical industry, he said he had had Parkinsons 15 years. He noted that he was testifying at the request of Medtronic, which approached him last week, though he wasn’t paid by them." The WSJ Health Blog reports.

The future of medicine?

"I am not your typical doctor. I'm easily accessible and mobile," Dr. Jay tells us via his website. That's right: for a yearly enrollment fee, you can IM Dr. Jay about your symptoms anytime. He also makes house calls—or, you know, wherever calls! "We can figure out if I need to come to your work, your home, or meet somewhere else in the city. We can even meet in the park or a coffee shop depending on the problem. Wherever you feel comfortable."

Gawker comments. See Dr. Jay's strange website here.

Insurer backs kidney-matching network

The WSJ Health Blog reports.

Elsevier published at least six fake medical journals

Ben Goldacre reports for the Guardian.