Re: Deteriorating Ethics Behind Medical and Healthcare Press Releases


"Dave" <djensen36@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9ed5a352-42b8-4e06-b8c0-626dad393d02@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Jan 9, 2:21 pm, Dave <djense...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 9, 1:31 pm, The One True Zhen Jue <Andrew_King...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Jan 9, 3:11 pm, Dave <djense...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

As a writer in the medical and healthcare blogosphere, I read and
write about press releases all the time. I've seen a disturbing new
trend.

It would be a shame if their ethics were to deteriorate to your level,
Dave.
Fortunately, they have quite a way to fall before they sink to your
level.

Feel free to quit promoting your commercial site right now.

One True Jue's comments are, as usual, inappropriate to respond to,
but here's some commentary from one of the top medical ethics
specialists in the country, from a personal email sent to me this
morning after I forwarded the press release:

"Wow, that's totally over the top. The headline is wildly
inappropriate (sounds like something from a late-night tv
infomercial). It looks to me like an example of the med center's
communications folks vastly overplaying the importance of a very early
study (one patient!). I wonder whether the articles authors saw this
before it was issued as a press release--I'd guess not, but it would
be interesting to know. Just fyi, the recent death of a woman in a
gene transfer trial for rheumatoid arthritis was in research using
anti-TNFs (the agent used in the below)--it's not clear what caused
her death but it seemed to be from a overly suppressed immune
response. So in short, I totally agree with you."

As an Alzheimer's caregiver, I can tell you that this kind of press
release is extremely painful. Medical journals and institutions need
to pay closer attention to what they send out to the media, as people
in real, live situations can be hurt by their "enthusiasm."

Dave

There is another comment on this topic, from Vernon O., who replied in
a different thread because I had inadvertently posted the message with
a typo and so I removed it and placed it here again. I guess that
Google's "remove" feature only works on Google newsreaders?

Anyway, Vernon makes the point that "anything to do with Professors
always has to do with M-O-N-E-Y," and I'll respond to Vernon O. in
this thread to keep it cohesive.

Vernon, while I don't quite understand your aggressive "if you had a
clue" posturing (have we had previous flames together you and I? I
thought we were bud's), I disagree vehemently with you about the
comment you made. I am generally quite convinced that academia keeps
itself fairly distanced from the "money" side of industry. The ties
between researchers and drug companies do exist, but I don't believe
that a generalization branding all professors as corrupt would be a
good thing. Besides, it isn't "corrupt" to have an association as long
as it is disclosed. Putting a sensational headline on a press release
for the intent of pushing a stock would be WAY over the top, if that
were the case, and I don't think that anyone could prove that was the
case.

Dave

Sorry
Why does a professor write a book or article?
They actually have information?
No way.
Do drug companies push their products? Of course.
I have dealt in the scientific world for decades (few in medical) and have
NEVER seen a variation regarding "scientific" articles and books. The
general exception is text books.

NOTE: I didn't say professors were "Corrupt".


.

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