Minneapolis Front Page News: For companies courting surgeons, how far is too far?

Minneapolis Star and Tribune Medical Technology Reporter Janet Moore has three very interesting pieces in the paper this week.  The first from Sunday's front page is titled "Part I: Medical device payments to doctors draw scrutiny" and highlights the issue of local University of Minnesota Spine Surgeon Dr. David Polly and the $344,375 in consulting fees Dr. Polly allegedly received from Medtronic in 2006, and similar amounts in 2004 and 2005.

This has all come to light because of a complaint filed in this whistleblower lawsuit filed by two former Medtronic employees in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts lawsuit accuses Dr. Polly and 112 other leading spine surgeons of allegedly accepting a total of $8 million in unethical and possibly illegal consulting payments in 2006 alone.  The lawyers for the physician defendants have provided a response here.

Today (Monday), Ms. Moore presented an article on the lawsuit itself and asking the question how far is too far for leading surgeons to accept financial compensation realted to medical device use. 

In addition to the information on the lawsuit, the articles also highlighted the Association for Ethics in Spine Surgery or AESS.  This organization's purpose on their webpage is to:

"promote patient care and evidence-based medicine and to provide increased public awareness of the detrimental and pervasive financial influence of industry on many health care providers and patients. The Association for Ethics in Spine Surgery promotes the care of patients absent of any consideration of financial gain or loss based on choice of surgical equipment, implant, manufacturer, hospital or surgery center. AESS members practice informed consent and believe patients have a right to know if their doctor is a paid consultant or distributor for any manufacturer or product." 

The AESS website provides a nice list of media and news links related to this issue as well. The third and final piece in this series will appear in tomorrow's paper. 

I look forward to your thoughts and comments. 

JW Matheson DPT