Rx for Doctors: Stop Accepting ‘Bribes’

Regarding “Medical Ethics Reform Urged,” Jan. 25:

For the last 54 years, I have watched the slowly increasing mutual corruption of physicians, politicians and drug companies.

Physicians and, I suspect, politicians are consistently bribed with cash, “free” meals, seminars, trinkets and talk.

Researchers and medical leaders are given money to provide “objective” reports at medical seminars. Some are objective and some are not. Some researchers are pressured to downplay the negatives and some give in.

It is way past time to insist that physicians do not accept “bribes” of any kind -- no matter how pretty or useful they seem.

Dr. Frank M. Kline

Rolling Hills Estates

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Doctors in training learn that it’s OK to accept gifts from pharma despite studies proving that it does influence their prescribing habits.

The universities themselves lose some of their credibility by allowing marketing to pass as medical education. And in the end, patients are the ones paying for doctor’s gifts with inflated prices for their prescription drugs.

Academic medical centers should be setting an example of professionalism for the rest of the medical profession by setting stricter regulations in their dealings with the pharmaceutical industry.

Yavar Moghimi

PharmFree Coordinator

American Medical Student Assn.

Washington

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There’s another thing that needs medical ethics reform: Pharmacies sell a physician’s prescribing record to drug companies.

Drug companies then know how many drugs of theirs and of their competitors are prescribed by any particular physician. They then send their representatives to coerce the physician to prescribe more of their brand.

The government needs to make this kind of activity illegal. No one should have access to a physician’s prescribing record.

Dr. Robert M. Miller

West Hills