healthy4u: blogs

The Return of PharmaLot

After an unfortunate hiatus (see<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2014/01/pharmalot-sent-down-memory-hole.html"> this post</a>), <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/pharmalot/">PharmaLot</a> is back.  PharmaLot was one of the premier sources of incisive information on the pharmaceutical industry, is back.  PharmaLot was and now is run by Ed Silverman, and is known for publishing important, but sometimes unpleasant truths. Ed Silverman provided unbiased, insightful reporting.  Notably for the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/">Health Care Renewal</a> audience, he was not afraid to report on the good, the bad, and the ugly. He was no friend of marketing and public relations smarm.  Often he was first to break stories involving legal settlements, guilty pleas, and miscellaneous misconduct, and in some cases was one of the few to document such stories. For example, when PharmaLot last disappeared, I noted that it provided one of the few accounts of a $21 million fine imposed on Merck by French antitrust regulators (here is the brief <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/19/us-france-fine-idUSBRE9BI0Q420131219">Reuters version</a>.)  PharmaLot reported on a judgement against Actelion for anti-competitive practices in support of its drug for pulmonary artery hypertension.  The only other media report on this was <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Actelion-loses-appeal-in-lung-drug-case-5079481.php">in the San Francisco Chronicle</a>, and it was less detailed.  As we have noted endlessly, bad behavior by large health care organizations, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and the various organizations with which they interact, like <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/contract%20research%20organizations">contract research organizations</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/medical%20education%20and%20communication%20companies">medical education and communication companies (MECCs)</a>, etc has often been <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic</a>.  If one likes to get along by going along, it is not a good idea to make too much of a fuss about such issues and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppression</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/manipulating%20clinical%20research">manipulation of clinical research</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/deception">deception</a> in  <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/marketing">marketing</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/perverse%20incentives">perverse incentives</a> including the creation of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/conflicts%20of%20interest">conflicts of interests</a>, much less outright <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/crime">crime </a>and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/health%20care%20corruption">corruption</a>.  Ed Silverman was known to fuss about such issues. So the return of his fearless reporting, and willingness to post controversial interviews and editorials, is a rare ray of light in the gloom.  PharmaLot has just been added back to our blog roll.  Welcome back! PS - It may be too much to hope that the back archives of older versions of PharmaLot can be restored to public view.  We wait with baited breath.  Hat tips to <a href="http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2014/06/04/oh-how-weve-missed-our-pharmalot/">1BoringOldMan</a>, <a href="http://loathingbioethics.blogspot.com/2014/06/pharmalot-is-back.html">Fear and Loathing in Bioethics</a>

The Return of PharmaLot

After an unfortunate hiatus (see this post ), PharmaLot is back. PharmaLot was one of the premier sources of incisive information on the ...

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PharmaLot Sent Down the Memory Hole

As noted in blog posts (<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38780/title/Goodbye--Pharmalot/">The Scientist</a>, the <a href="http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/2013/12/where-have-all-critical-pharma-bloggers.html">Pharma Marketing Blog</a>, <a href="http://shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2014/01/if-you-know-ed-and-like-his-work-please.html">Shearlings got Plowed</a>), and one solitary newspaper article (<a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jan/02/pharmalot-ubm-canon-silverman/">San Diego Union-Tribune</a>), Ed Silverman's PharmaLot blog is no more. The main page of the blog has been replaced with a simple announcement. <blockquote class="tr_bq">UBM Canon has ceased the production of the following brands: Med Ad News, PharmaLive.com, Pharmalot, eKnowledgeBase and R&D Directions. Thank you for your loyalty and support that has played such an important part over the last thirty years. </blockquote> As others have noted, the shutdown of PharmaLot will remove an important source of news and opinion about the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.  Ed Silverman provided unbiased, insightful reporting.  Notably for the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/">Health Care Renewal</a> audience, he was not afraid to report on the good, the bad, and the ugly. He was no friend of marketing and public relations smarm.  Often he was first to break stories involving legal settlements, guilty pleas, and miscellaneous misconduct, and in some cases was one of the few to document such stories. For example, in my current file, I note that PharmaLot provided one of the few accounts of a $21 million fine imposed on Merck by French antitrust regulators (here is the brief <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/19/us-france-fine-idUSBRE9BI0Q420131219">Reuters version</a>.)  PharmaLot reported on a judgement against Actelion for anti-competitive practices in support of its drug for pulmonary artery hypertension.  The only other media report on this was <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Actelion-loses-appeal-in-lung-drug-case-5079481.php">in the San Francisco Chronicle</a>, and it was less detailed.  As we have noted endlessly, bad behavior by large health care organizations, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and the various organizations with which they interact, like <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/contract%20research%20organizations">contract research organizations</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/medical%20education%20and%20communication%20companies">medical education and communication companies (MECCs)</a>, etc has often been <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic</a>.  If one likes to get along by going along, it is not a good idea to make too much of a fuss about such issues and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppression</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/manipulating%20clinical%20research">manipulation of clinical research</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/deception">deception</a> in  <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/marketing">marketing</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/perverse%20incentives">perverse incentives</a> including the creation of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/conflicts%20of%20interest">conflicts of interests</a>, much less outright <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/crime">crime </a>and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/health%20care%20corruption">corruption</a>.  Ed Silverman was known to fuss about such issues. So the loss of his ongoing reporting, and willingness to post controversial interviews and editorials, will be sorely missed. Even more concerning, however, is the loss of his previous work. As noted in <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38780/title/Goodbye--Pharmalot/">The Scientist's blog</a>, the PharmaLot archives are now inaccessible.  Although there are workarounds for the web-savvy that may allow retrieval of some of his previous work, especially if one knows what one is looking for, straightforward access is now difficult, and may become more difficult as it ages. Since PharmaLot provides an important archive of important problems with ethics, management and governance in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, and since such issues as noted above often go minimally or not reported, permanent loss of previous PharmaLot content would be a big blow to transparency in health care, and a big boost for the anechoic effect. The current owner of PharmaLot is UBM Canon.  This company, as noted by a comment on The Scientist's blog post, easily verified <a href="http://ubmcanon.com/medical/">here</a>, is heavily involved with marketing and promotion for the pharmaceutical industry.  I can only hope that they will not succumb to any temptation to suppress the important documentation of the industry that PharmaLot provided, even if that documentation might have not always made industry honchos happy.  ADDENDUM (17 January, 2014) - the <a href="http://www.outcomes-marketing.com/pharmalot">PharmaLot site </a>is now entirely unavailable, that is, going to it yields a 404 not found error.

PharmaLot Sent Down the Memory Hole

As noted in blog posts ( The Scientist , the Pharma Marketing Blog , Shearlings got Plowed ), and one solitary newspaper article ( San Diego...

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Mr. HISTalk has a pair

I've been somewhat concerned about the <a href="http://histalk2.com/">HISTalk</a> blog site becoming HIT ad revenue-beholden in recent years, perhaps diluting its critique of HIT industry dysfunction. However, after seeing <a href="http://histalk2.com/2009/06/09/news-061009/">these posts</a> today, I am reconsidering that impression (comments in red are mine). On why physicians are ignored in HIT decisions: <blockquote>... Because that’s what IT executives do (no offense to those CIOs who really do give physicians a strong voice in decision-making). I’ve been on that IT side and the working assumptions where I’ve been were that doctors and nurses (a) don’t understand organizational strategy; (b) are too easily swayed by demo eye candy and insincere vendor promises; (c) understand only products themselves and not the big picture IT world of vendor stability, product positioning, and integration; and (d) don’t appreciate IT’s technology, support, and organizational challenges. [In other words, are basically stupid; see my 1999-ish piece on doctor stereotypes <a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/informaticsmd/tactics.htm">here</a> - ed.] I’ve worked in three places where users were invited to review and recommend clinical systems. In every one, the first choice of doctors and nurses wasn’t the one that was purchased because we IT folks (some of whom were held in very high regard, mostly by themselves and their easily influenced peers) were so much more knowledgeable that we had the right … no, the obligation … to override them to buy what we thought was the best system. Their resulting adoption was about what you would expect. CIOs are often fixated on buying whatever will cause them the fewest headaches or that carries the lowest organization risk. [I would not dismiss the potential influence of conflict of interest as well - ed.] </blockquote>on CCHIT: <blockquote>Some anonymous blog commenters (not here) are demanding that Mark Leavitt step down from his role as CCHIT chairman, claiming his history with HIMSS will always taint CCHIT. My thoughts: I agree. HIMSS wisely used its clout to create CCHIT in its image and nurture it through general acceptance to advance its own agenda, but the strings need to be cut now (including replacing Steve Lieber as CCHIT board chair). I predicted when CCHIT was created that it wouldn’t really change the industry because the interoperability changes CCHIT was supposed to certify (and nothing more) weren’t capabilities customers cared about anyway. That’s what has happened, at least from my cheap seat. Now that CCHIT indirectly affects billions in stimulus dollars, I’d rather see it run by people with no trade group or vendor connections. If it isn’t willing to do that, I’d say choose or form another group to run the certification program. Some of what CCHIT wants to measure, report, or certify (functionality, security, specialty capabilities) is going way beyond what the government should be mandating anyway, although this particular government seems to enjoy telling carmakers and banks how to run their affairs (kind of like letting the Mafia buy into your business). It’s funny that the industry has fought tooth and nail to avoid FDA oversight that it couldn’t control, but seems to like CCHIT because it removes some competitors and sends innovation to the back of the line. [I largely agree with the caveat that the #1 issue for me is clinical IT safety -- primum non nocerum -- and also recently found part of CCHIT leader Mark Leavitt's <a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/06/open-letter-to-mark-leavitt-chairman.html">response to my pointed questions</a> patronizing and a bit hysterical. Sign of a leader who can't handle the pressure of public scrutiny and controversy without blowing up? My early mentor, cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Victor P. Satinsky, had a rule in medicine - "If you don't like it, don't come" - i.e., if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen - ed.] </blockquote> Regarding Mr. HisTalk's comments: wow. -- SS

Mr. HISTalk has a pair

I've been somewhat concerned about the HISTalk blog site becoming HIT ad revenue-beholden in recent years, perhaps diluting its critiqu...

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