This morning, I was listening to KUAC when I heard a story about Doctors who had been disciplined in the past, but were now receiving money from pharmaceutical companies. You can read the original ProPublica story here. I think most people are vaguely familiar with this happening - or at least I hope most people are - but along with that story came a wonderful utility to find out if your doctor had reported income from the drug companies. Immediately, I checked for a doctor that had behaved very strange and found that their strange behaviour was all their own (or is hiding their pharmaceutical income). But perhaps you'd like to check your own too; I've gone ahead and linked the entry on Alaskan doctors here.
I should hasten to add that I'm not against pharmaceutical companies per se, as I'm a huge fan of new and modern drugs. I'll take a refined and purified analgesic over some willow bark and mashed up porcupine quills any day of the week (or at least those days where I need an analgesic). I am slightly leery of their marketing arms though, which can get up to some... morally dubious things. What really surprises me is that the amount that Doctors have received is so small; 257 million since 2009 seems like chump change. We're talking about 7 massive companies what have far more than that to throw around...
3 comments:
Hey some folks from IAB came to give a talk at the ANSEP meeting today. They brought a hibernating ground skwerl and passed him around. The little dewd was out like a light! They also said that ya'll had a bear up there! You have a BEAR in IAB??
Yes, but we promise not to sic it on all you lower campus-ers. :p
(I just learnt about the bear a week ago, so it must be pretty new.)
We also have ducks! Scaups, IIRC.
Can you go see him? More importantly, can I go see him? :)
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