ASK DR. BAUGHAN                                      November 12, 1999

A CONFESSION

This week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has an important article about how medical research is influenced or biased by the pharmaceutical or medical equipment industry that funds research by the most respected of researchers and universities.  This is a very serious topic that affects the culture in which health professionals are trained and in which they practice.  We need to beware of any blinders that we consciously or unconsciously choose to wear when we consider questions of health.  One of the most dangerous threats to knowledge and health is a closed mind.  The article calls for anyone who publishes research or health information to disclose any connections with any business ventures that might remotely influence their findings and opinions.  Therefore, before I sanctimoniously comment on the sins of my professional colleagues, I must disclose my own receipts of benefits from drug companies.  Being of good Puritan stock (I can claim heritage from both Elder Brewster of the Mayflower and Susannah Martin, one of the ill-fated Salem “witches”), I now confess as follows:

The best luxury I ever received was from a drug company was to attend a conference at the famed La Costa Resort in California when I was living in San Diego.  My wife and I were given free room and meals for one night and two days and access to the spa facilities.  A baby-sitter was to watch my then-10-year-old daughter until my then-17-year-old son got back from a date.  We received a plaintive phone call from my daughter at 3 a.m. that she was all alone, brother being out carousing.  I remember the drive home in the middle of the night.  I remember the family meeting the next day.  I do not remember which company sponsored the conference.

Last year I received an invitation to be a “guest faculty” at a conference at the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont.  I would receive free meals and accommodations plus $250 to listen to an update on the care of diabetes and receive educational materials that I could use to give lectures back home.  Again, my wife was welcome as well.  I snored so loudly the first night there that she got no sleep (this was before I discovered Silent Nite, thanks to Dr.Hofmann), and she was so miserable in the morning we came home before the conference was half over.  I don’t remember who sponsored that one, either.  My wife won’t go with me to any more of these things.  It’s not a moral stand.  They are just bad luck.

There was a similar deal at Kennebunkport to learn about hypertension, cholesterol and heart disease.  The room was moldy, and the beds were lumpy.  We  blew the honorarium on a meal at the White Barn Inn that we stumbled upon.  Excellent meal.  They even loaned me a jacket to wear.  I can’t recall who footed the bill for that conference.  I do remember at the end of the conference asking the speakers why they had not discussed how heart disease risk can be reduced by prayer and having a dog.  We all agreed that omission might be because the National Council of Churches and the American Kennel Club do not fund much medical research.

Once or twice a week a pharmaceutical representative buys pizza or sandwiches for me and my staff while we listen to their spiel.  The average specialist deals with approximately 20 drugs.  A family physician routinely prescribes over 90 different medications.  I have enough trouble remembering the medicines.  I have never been able to remember who makes them.

I think my experience is pretty typical of family physicians.  We may not be pure, but our sins are pretty boring.  Finally, no one has yet tried to influence my opinions in this column, and I write them all myself.  Do I have a price?  Anyone care to bid?