Are doctors bribed by pharma? An analysis of data

Conclusion Correlation is not causation. While many advocates of reduced interactions between “commercial” interests and physicians have implied or directly suggested a quid pro quo between industry meals and other financial interactions and prescribing habits, correlation alone does not prove a quid pro quo relationship. In the case of opioid prescribing, we believe that we have presented a strong case that 1) the relationship between industry payments and prescribing is much weaker than has been presented in the literature, and 2) that prescribing and attendance at manufacturer-sponsored informational lunches are both driven by practice characteristics, rather than the meals themselves driving prescriptions (Type 0 relationship). We believe that much of what has been published regarding the correlation of prescribing with industry payments and sponsored meals suffers from the shortcomings described in this short note. In particular, many of these papers conflate causation with correlation. In cases where fairly simple and obvious analyses would serve to differentiate between the authors’ preconceptions and alternative interpretations of the data, these analyses have not been performed. We urge all with an interest in this area to approach these data with the highest possible level of objectivity, as is our responsibility as scientists. We have done our best to do so here, and commit to doing so in our planned analyses of other papers in this area. We look forward to a...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Reanalysis Source Type: blogs