Posts Tagged ‘ DePuy Surgeon ’

Did your DePuy Hip Surgeon Receive Compensation from DePuy?

December 7th, 2010. By AbiK

I came across an interesting article yesterday over at Connecticut Health I-Team (C-HIT), a non-profit publication focusing on health and safety issues. The article was about the DePuy ASR Hip replacement, and the hip recall—and sure, there’s been an onslaught of news about DePuy, but this article was one of the few I’ve seen that actually published the list of surgeons who’ve received compensation from DePuy Orthopaedics. The list includes around 200 surgeons nationwide who received a total of over $80.8 million.

To be fair, the list is available over at the DePuy company website—but you have to work for it a bit. It’s not only down at the bottom navigation on the homepage in grey mice type (translation: not exactly the mose legible), but it’s also arranged as an alphabetical click-through by the doctor’s last name. I didn’t see an actual downloadable file of the complete list—and that’s where C-HIT comes in—they did that legwork.

Now, I’m not saying that any of those surgeons necessarily chose to use the DePuy ASR Hip in patients when perhaps a better hip implant would’ve been a more prudent choice. What I am saying though is that the practice of pharmaceutical companies compensating doctors—for consulting, speaking gigs or whatever—does begin to put into question just how independently or free-from-influence a doctor can truly be when making decisions regarding patient care—when he’s been compensated by the very companies that provide the menu of treatment options available to him, and therefore, his patients?

So, for those of you who are curious, this is the list that was published by C-HIT, by state. Click to read on… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: DePuy ASR Hip, DePuy Hip Recall, DePuy Orthopaedics Metal Hip Replacement, DePuy Surgeon
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 10 Comments »