Posts Tagged ‘ Dollars for Docs ’

Is Your Doctor Getting Cash from Big Pharma? Find Out

October 20th, 2010. By AbiK

It’s been a good year for Dr. Firhaad Ismail. Indeed! Financially speaking, that is. See, according to the info over at ProPublica, in their Dollars for Docs report, Dr. Ismail took in no less than $303,558 from big pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline (GSK…the folks who brought you Avandia and Paxil), Eli LIlly, and Merck.

Now, Dr. Ismail is just one of 384 doctors nationwide who’ve received payment from big pharma. Ismail is based in Vegas (clearly, if ProPublica’s involved, what goes on in Vegas is not staying in Vegas) and his specialty is Endocrinology and Metabolism. And he appears to do a fair amount of consulting on the topic. On big pharma’s dime.

Dr. Ismail may be the best damn doctor there is in his specialty. I don’t know. But what I do know is that the ProPublica report indicates that Dr. Ismail received a total of $209,400 from GSK alone. Recall what area of practice Dr. Ismail is in…Endocrinology. What does Endocrinology deal with? Well, diabetes for one. And last I checked, Avandia is a type 2 diabetes drug made by GSK.

I’m just putting on the table what’s already out there. I’m not saying there’s any unsavory relationship here…but I the jaded skeptic in me does raise a little eyebrow…

Needless to say, I’ve been checking out my own doctors over at ProPublica.com. You can, too. Just hop over to Dollars for Docs and do a search for your doctor’s name, by state. You can also find a full list there of all the doctors nationwide.

Let us know what you find…and if you think doctors receiving funds from big pharma presents a conflict of interest.

Tags: Dollars for Docs, Dr. Firhaad Ismail, Eli Lilly, GSK, Merck, ProPublica
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 1 Comment »