Key opinion leaders and the corruption of medical knowledge: What the sunshine act will and won't cast light on

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Volumn 41, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 635-643

  Sismondo, Sergio ^a  

^a QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CONFLICT OF INTEREST; DRUG INDUSTRY; ECONOMICS; GIFT GIVING; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HUMAN; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; LEGAL ASPECT; MARKETING; PHYSICIAN; UNITED STATES;

COMMUNICATION; CONFLICT OF INTEREST; DISCLOSURE; DRUG INDUSTRY; GIFT GIVING; HUMANS; MARKETING; PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT; PHYSICIANS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84885160640     PISSN: 10731105     EISSN: 1748720X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/jlme.12073     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. The Physician Payment Sunshine Act S. 301 (111th) was enacted as section 6002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 111 Congress HR 3590 2010.
2. Quoted in C. Fiegl. "Public Can See Pharma Payments to Doctors Starting in 2014, "American Medical News, February 11, 2013, available at (last visited July 3, 2013).
3. Editorial, "Finding Out Who Pays Your Doctor, "New York Times, February 18, 2013.
4. For a discussion of the psychology principles underlying marketing efforts to influence physicians see, S. Sah and A. Fugh-Berman, "Physicians under the Influence: Social Psychology and Industry Marketing Strategies, "Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 41, no. 3 (2013): 665-672.
5. D. Nguyen, C. Ornstein, and T. Weber, "Dollars for Docs: How Industry Dollars Reach your Doctors, " Propublica, available at (last visited July 3, 2013).
6. For discussions of the limitations of disclosures, see in this issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 41, no. 3 (2013)
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23. D. Carlat, "Dr. Drug Rep, " New York Times, November 25, 2007. However, drug firms still have a powerful economic incentive to encourage off-label prescribing. See, M. Rodwin, "Rooting Out Institutional Corruption to Manage Inappropriate Off-label Drug Use, "Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 41, no. 3 (2013): 654-664.
24. See, M. Rodwin, quot;Rooting Out Institutional Corruption to Manage Inappropriate Off-label Drug Use,"Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 41, no. 3 (2013): 654-664.
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29. S. Sismondo, "Ghost Management: How Much of the Medical Literature Is Shaped behind the Scenes by the Pharmaceutical Industry?" PLoS Medicine 4, no. 9 (2007): e286; S. Sismondo, "Ghosts in the Machine: Publication Planning in the Medical Sciences, "Social Studies of Science 39, no. 2 (2009): 171-198.
30. P. C. Gotzsche, A. Hróbjartsson, H. Krogh Johansson, M. T. Haahr, D. G. Altman, and A.-W. Chan, "Ghost Authorship in Industry-Initiated Randomised Trials, " PLoS Medicine 4, no. 1 (2007): 47-52. See Sismondo, supra note 33, especially, "Ghosts in the Machine."
31. Author notes, "KOL and Stakeholder Engagement Europe, " Berlin, 2012.
32. J. Dana and G. Loewenstein, "A Social Science Perspective on Gifts to Physicians from Industry, " JAMA 290, no. 2 (2003): 252-255.
33. S. Chimonas, T. A. Brennan, and D. J. Rothman, "Physicians and Drug Representatives: Exploring the Dynamics of the Relationship, " Journal of General Internal Medicine 22, no. 2 (2007): 184-190, at 187.
34. M. A. Rodwin, "Drug Advertising, Continuing Medical Education, and Physician Prescribing: A Historical Review and Reform Proposal, " Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 38, no. 4 (2010): 807-815.
35. S. Almashat, C. Preston, T. Waterman, and S. Wolfe, "Rapidly Increasing Criminal and Civil Monetary Penalties against the Pharmaceutical Industry: 1991 to 2010, " Report of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group (2010).
36. A. Lundh, S. Sismondo, J. Lexchin, O. Busuioc, and L. Bero, "Industry Sponsorship and Research Outcome, " Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 12 (December 2012), available at (last visited July 10, 2013).
37. D. Healy and D. Cattell, "Interface between Authorship, Industry and Science in the Domain of Therapeutics, " British Journal of Psychiatry 183, no. 1 (2003): 22-27.
38. A. Schafer, "Biomedical Conflicts of Interest: A Defence of the Sequestration Thesis - Learning from the Cases of Nancy Olivieri and David Healy, " Journal of Medical Ethics 30, no. 1 (2004): 8-24
39. M. Angell, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How they Deceive Us and What To Do about It (New York: Random House, 2005): at 244-247 Discussion of sequestration, and of governments taking responsibility for the testing of drugs, has a long history; for a review of arguments, and the limitations of those arguments
40. see M. Rodwin, quot;Independent Clinical Trials to Test Drugs: The Neglected Reform,"Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy 6, no. 1 (2013): 113-165.
41. Id. (Angell) at 245. Schafer's proposal is essentially the same. See, also, See, D. W. Light, J. Lexchin, and J. Darrow, "Institutional Corruption of Pharmaceuticals and the Myth of Safe and Effective Drugs, "Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 41, no. 3 (2013): 590-600.
42. S. Finkelstein and P. Temin, Reasonable Rx: Solving the Drug Price Crisis (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Education, 2008). See also the Medical Innovation Prize Act. H.R. 417 (109th).