Dear Members of CTCPS,
A Vermont psychiatrist was paid nearly $117,000 in 2009 in gifts and payments from drug companies. I am sure, in his own mind, these gifts were justified. But, looking at it from my desk as a consumer advocate, it would appear that he is a drug company junkie and his patients need to know that just perhaps his decisions are influenced by pharmacetucial largesse.
Of all the industries that make up our health care "system", pharma has had profound influence at all levels; the FDA, hospitals, academic medical centers, disease groups and coalitions, doctors offices. Add to that their direct to consumer marketing and we are dealing with patients who are demanding a medication when he or she might be better off not taking any drug at all.
Howard Brody,in his insightful book Hooked, states "Medicine has for many decades been betraying the public trust in the way that it has accepted various benefits from the pharmaceutical industry."
The CT Center for Patient Safety wants the consumer to wake up to conflicts of interest that may well be detrimental to his or her own health.
Recently a doctor complained that he met with a patient who was swallowing twenty prescriptions each day. The physician was mad at the patient - but not at the many doctors who wrote those scripts without getting a full picture of what that patient was taking and why.
While we need to take responsibility for our own health care, not all of us are able to do that. I will continue to provide you with links to responsible web sites where you can get accurante information and I will continue to bring you the latest reports of pharmaceutical shenanigans.
Jean
203 247 5757 |