The secret sidelines of doctors
02. sep. 2010 11.47 EnglishIn the majority of cases, doctors must disclose their ties to, and financial interests in, the pharmaceutical industry.
But the rules only apply to doctors who write drug prescriptions. Doctors who have a sideline with a pharmaceutical company, but who do not write prescriptions, can keep their ties to the pharmaceutical industry under wraps.
The public therefore does not get a true picture of the extent of doctors' conflicts of interests.
- I think it's a problem that there are no publicly available information on conflicts of interest which include all doctors, says doctor Thorsten Schumann.