{"id":6610,"date":"2011-07-05T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/mass-general-harvard-not-transparen\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:20:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:20:51","slug":"mass-general-harvard-not-transparen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/mass-general-harvard-not-transparen\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass General & Harvard Not Transparent About Cause of Docs’ “Honest Mistakes”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have disciplined three faculty members as part of a conflict-of-interest (COI) case, which was “a prime exhibit in the debate over the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2010,” reports NPR Health Blog (see “Harvard Punishes 3 Psychiatrists Over Undisclosed Industry Pay<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

Drs. Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens — faculty members at Harvard Medical School — were accused of accepting more than $4.2 million from drug companies for psychiatric research and other activities between 2000-2007 without reporting the income to Harvard, MGH or the federal government, according to NPR blog.<\/p>\n

In their “Dear Colleagues” letter sent on Friday just before the 4th of July holiday weekend — when not many of their colleagues would be in town — the docs said it was an “honest mistake” (find their letter here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The offending physicians — one of whom (Biederman) is a “leading proponent of the off-label use of antipsychotic drugs to treat bipolar illness in children” — claim they should have spent “more time and attention to the detailed requirements of these [COI] policies and to their underlying objectives.”<\/p>\n

It seems that a lot of doctors and medical schools make these “honest mistakes.”<\/p>\n

I reported previously that when it comes to enforcing COI policies, universities have “allowed permissive interpretations and relied on the honor system,” said the authors of a ProPublica article. ProPublica\u2019s review shows many physicians are in apparent violation of policies, and “ignorance or confusion about the rules is widespread” (see “Medical Schools Don’t Ask & Faculty Don’t Tell If They Violate Ban on Paid Pharma Speaking Gigs<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

A commenter to the NPR blog post said “They were ‘mistaken’ for a seven-year period…then that’s how long they should be barred from such activities.” In fact, Harvard and MGH barred the three physicians from accepting payments for “all paid industry-sponsor outside activities” for only one year.<\/p>\n

NPR said “Harvard and the MGH didn’t allow much sunshine in on the outcome of its lengthy investigation of the case.” Such sunshine might reveal what contributed to the 7-year “mistake” regarding compliance with the COI policies. Perhaps the policies themselves need investigation?<\/p>\n

[This post originally appeared in Pharma Marketing Blog<\/a><\/b>. <\/div>\n
Make sure you are reading the source<\/a> to get the latest comments.]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have disciplined three faculty members as part of a conflict-of-interest (COI) case, which was “a prime exhibit in the debate over the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2010,” reports NPR Health Blog (see “Harvard Punishes 3 Psychiatrists Over Undisclosed Industry Pay“). Drs. 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