A New Decade…a continuing story of unethical spine surgery.

   Ahhh… well I am coming out of my New Year euphoria, you know the one that says “this year will be better, the good in medicine will finally win out.”   Well Paul Reuteman PT from UW-Lacrosse just send me this to make sure that I quit drinking and get back to reality.  I encourage our readers to take a quick read of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel piece on Dr. Thomas Zdeblick, University of Wisconsin Orthopaedic Surgeon and editor of the Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques.  I am sure Dr. Zdeblick was glad this one came out on Christmas Eve when very few folks are paying attention.  The quick story is that Dr. Zdeblick took over editorship of this Journal seven years ago.  Since then, studies involving Medtronic spinal products or that were funded by Medtronic appeared in the journal at least once per issue, on average.  Oh, I forgot to mention that in the subsequent years Dr. Zdeblick received more than $20 million in patent royalties from Medtronic for spinal implants sold by the company (recession?…what recession).  Furthermore, Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques is now the conduit for positive research articles involving Medtronic spinal products.  I encourage all faculty of the University of Wisconsin educational system to email this to the ethics committee of the University.  

Happy New Year!

Tim