Medical Ethics are the Focus of Multiple Reports
Mar 17th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsAt issue: doctors who pitch pharmaceuticals to colleagues, medical workers who snooped on Britney Spears’s private records, and Australian sports authorities who are examining prescription records for evidence of doping
VARIOUS DATELINES
The balance between profits and the ethics of medical practice, as well as between privacy and publicity, was the fulcrum of several stories last week. Among them:
- The Associated Press reports that new ethics questions are arising as doctors increasingly are being used to pitch pharmaceuticals to colleagues. In a story last week, the he AP profiled Daniel Carlat, a Boston psychiatrist who is on the “speakers bureau” for pharmaceutical companies — speaking to groups of doctors or meeting with one or two at a time over dinner. He earned about $30,000 in one year for such activities, but said his conscience bothered him and he quit. “My role in the company was not by any means to serve as a source of unbiased medical information…. My role was really simply to be a part of their marketing machinery and that was the value I had for them,” he said.
- UCLA Medical Center has begun firing at least 13 employees and has suspended at least six for allegedly peering into the confidential medical records of singer Britney Spears when she was hospitalized in the center’s psychiatric unit, the Los Angeles Times reports. A source told the paper that six physicians also will face disciplinary action for looking at the records. The Times notes that employees were warned on the morning of Spears’s hospitalization that her records should only be accessed when medically necessary and that snoopers would be disciplined.
- The Australian Medical Association is warning that anti-doping investigators are setting a dangerous precedent by examining the medical records of athletes, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The nation’s Anti-Doping Authority is looking at prescription records held by national health insurers for evidence that athletes could be taking performance-enhancing drugs. While doctors say such inquiries are an invasion of privacy, the government is unapologetic about its vigilance. A government spokesperson, however, did tell the ABC that authorities have yet to receive any data and will consult with privacy experts before examining prescription records.
Sources: AP, Mar. 8 — Los Angeles Times, Mar. 14 — Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mar. 14.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Mar. 10 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 10 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 3 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 25 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 14.
Print This Story
Email This Story
[...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, Mar. 17 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 10 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 10 [...]
[...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 2 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 17 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 5, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 1, [...]