The Buzz from BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek's article spotlighting the problems with industry-funded CME has generated a fair amount of reponse, mostly from Medical Education Communication Companies or their surrogates. Here's a round up.

Policy and Medicine begins with a personal attack on me:

"Political fallout from the Pfizer decision not to fund medical communication companies (MECC's) in July, includes a Business Week article titled: Teaching Doctors—or Selling to Them? This is basically a rehash of the Pfizer MECC decision along with some free PR for Danny Carat, MD, the gadfly anti MECC blogger (who by the way has no conflicts of interest except that his CME newsletter business will increase if he gets his way and ends commercial support of CME – oh, yeah, he forgot to mention that in the article – such a slip). In the interview for the article Carlat is quoted of the Pfizer decision: “It sends out a message that there’s a level of distrust about the way they (the marketing firms) operate.”"

See the attack? He misspells my name! But beyond that, he accuses me of trying to hide the fact that I publish a CME newsletter and that I make money from it. Actually, I told the reporter about the newsletter, and she and her editor chose not to include the information in the article. So blame BusinessWeek, not me, and feel free to send a letter to the editor to that effect; I'm quite certain they would publish it.

To those who believe that I try to hide my involvement in the CME business, I suggest you shift your gaze slightly to the right of this paragraph, where you'll see that I disclose this conflict of interest, in bold, on the front page of my blog. You'll find no such disclosure on the home page of Policy and Medicine, however. As it turns out, the writer of that blog is none other than Thomas Sullivan, who is the founder and CEO of Rockpointe, a very successful pharmaceutically-funded MECC that produces dozens of industry-supported symposia, primarily in the field of cardiovascular disease. Their website makes the following pitch to drug companies: "We deliver message-driven medical education programs targeting the confluence of medical science and clinical need." Hmmm. "Message-driven medical education." That sounds almost like a marketing line to me. But no, it can't be, because Rockpointe is a CME company, not a marketing company, right?

It is possible to discover Mr. Sullivan's conflicts from his blog, but you'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page and click "about". If he is so concerned about conflicts of interest, why doesn't he reveal his own conflicts on his home page, like I do?

Ditto for a number of people who posted negative comments about the BusinessWeek article. A certain "J Stotler" has (thus far) posted no fewer than five comments about how "deceiptful" the article is. Who is he? He is apparently Jonathan J. Stotler, MAOM, senior director, Institute for Advanced Health Education, Union, N. J. Mr. Stotler was recently quoted in this Medical Meetings Magazine article.

Then there is Lew Pinsker, who accuses Weintraub of neglecting "due journalistic diligence in researching her subject." Mr. Pinsker fails to disclose that he is the Vice President of Editorial and Creative Services for Medical Communications Media, an industry-funded MECC that sells drug companies a product called "The Primary Care CME Synergy Plan" which "provides a consistent educational message by using a single faculty and set of learning objectives...." Gee, "consistent educational message." Marketing? No, must be CME.

But wait--there's more!

B. Martin criticizes Weintraub's "inability to differentiate between outright pharma marketing and the current status of industry-funded CME." She does not disclose that she is Barbara Martin, who, on her Pathophilia website, identifies herself as a "formerly practicing board-certified neurologist" who is now a full time writer in the "intriguing world of pharmaceutical marketing and pharma-supported continuing medical education (CME)." I guess that means her job is dependent on industry support of CME.

We all have our conflicts of interest, and our conflicts inevitably inform our opinions. However, to those who base their arguments on attacking my conflicts, please make sure to disclose your own.