Today, I want to share about this site called Open Payments. It is a badass “federally run transparency program that collects information about these financial relationships” to make it free and easy to find.
Here’s why this is important – doctors who get kickbacks or have relationships with organizations are more likely to prescribe medications from certain pharma brands, etc. This doesn’t necessarily imply improper relations. I’m more likely, for example, to recommend products when I’ve had more interactions with their brands.
Still, this is an important issue to note. As patients seeing physicians who aren’t infallible, we need this information. One of my former doctors is on the list and, while I can’t see what ties there were, it explains some of the interactions we had.
Make sure to visit Open Payments and see what your doc’s history of involvement with health care organizations like pharma is. Note that the data is currently available up to 2015.
A very good point raised. There's a lot of associations in the form of research publicised, credit gives, financial incentives etc that we as patients are very rarely, if ever, aware of unless we hunt for the information. x
i had a great time looking up my doctors. Well none really made much more than $2,000 off of speaking or consulting fees. My doctors are slackers.