Mercenary Bastards Anonymous...
...would be an unnecessarily inflammatory title for this post. However, via Improbable Research (http://improbable.com/?p=10122), an article in the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/01/23/doctor_quits_brigham_to_speak_for_pay?mode=PF), and a post here last week (http://community.livejournal.com/anti_gravitas/383947.html) which garnered enough off-blog correspondence and commentary to keep members of ethics committees busy arguing for at least a couple of semesters, comes a new twist in the saga of "academic freejacks"*.
From the Improbable Research piece:
"Boston physician Lawrence M. DuBuske was given a choice: Either stop moonlighting as a paid speaker for pharmaceutical companies or quit his job at a top Harvard teaching hospital. To the surprise of some, DuBuske, an allergy and asthma specialist and a Harvard Medical School instructor, will resign from Brigham and Women’s Hospital at the end of the month, the hospital said.
DuBuske is no ordinary speaker. Out of thousands of US doctors hired by drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline to talk about its products, he was the highest paid during a three-month period last year, the company recently disclosed: He made $99,375 for giving 40 talks to other physicians last April, May, and June, almost one every other day."
*Cheers to D for the label apposite term, and for being the first to hurl healthcare research back into the mix. ;o)
From the Improbable Research piece:
"Boston physician Lawrence M. DuBuske was given a choice: Either stop moonlighting as a paid speaker for pharmaceutical companies or quit his job at a top Harvard teaching hospital. To the surprise of some, DuBuske, an allergy and asthma specialist and a Harvard Medical School instructor, will resign from Brigham and Women’s Hospital at the end of the month, the hospital said.
DuBuske is no ordinary speaker. Out of thousands of US doctors hired by drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline to talk about its products, he was the highest paid during a three-month period last year, the company recently disclosed: He made $99,375 for giving 40 talks to other physicians last April, May, and June, almost one every other day."
*Cheers to D for the label apposite term, and for being the first to hurl healthcare research back into the mix. ;o)