Civics: media influence and medicine

Paul Thacker:

I was on an email list of emergency physicians from around the country. One of the doctors wrote that a rumor was circulating that Genentech had funded part of the American Heart Association’s new building. He said the rumor just wasn’t true. 

I decided to look into it further, and spoke to Jerome Hoffman, at UCLA. He was one of the few physicians on an American Heart Association panel to evaluate tPA who didn’t take any money from Genentech. Hoffman also happened to be one of the few physicians who voted against promoting tPA for stroke.

I called the American Heart Association and found out that they were taking Genentech money, and when I asked them about any financial conflicts among their panelists, they said, “Oh, no, no, no. When we put people on a panel, we insist on financial disclosure.” 

I said, “Fine, would you send me those disclosures?” 

They said, “We don’t disclose disclosures.”

DICHRON: [Laughs] Disclosing disclosures would be a disclosure too far.

LENZER: [Laughs] Yeah! I had to figure out where the panelist’s money came from by searching through medical studies. Some doctors came clean when I called them, but a couple denied that they got money.

I’ll never forget one. He absolutely denied taking any money. And then I showed him that he was the principal investigator on a study funded by Genentech that he published in JAMA. And his answer was, “Oh, I forgot. I didn’t know I was listed as principal investigator on that study.” 

Some doctors get irate and deny conflicts of interest, yet I find out that they are getting millions of dollars from companies. When you start to ask questions … people who get the most aggressive and threaten to sue … Oh, it’s a red flag.

DICHRON: You’ve also gone after the media for failing to disclose the financial conflicts of the experts they quote. In 2008, you and Shannon Brownlee exposed The Infinite Mind, an award-winning radio series that ran on NPR stations. I used to listen that show all the time. 

You wrote for Slate about a program they ran on Prozac, and all three guests they interviewed had ties to Eli Lilly, which made Prozac. Well, first off, the show itself was funded in part by Lilly, and the host of the show, Dr. Fred Goodwin, also had Lilly ties.