HELLO!

I like my neurologist alot. He seems to be very intelligent, and interested in my symptoms. However, I have noticed since seeing him that he is often trying to get me enrolled in one of his studies of possibly helpful drugs for PD and actually, initially, I was in one of his studies when I first saw him. I have often asked him about treatments I've read about on the PD website here, and he often is negative about things like Dextromathoraphan, and Resagilene,simply saying, "they don't work" Recently, I was told that MDs receive 5,000 to 10,000 dollars for every research patient they get. It scares me to think I'm being led into a particular research project because it "may" help me and others, AND, it helps the doc's finances too. I'm thinking of switching docs, but am not sure, any advice is very appreciated! Has anyone else had an md who rejected ideas you brought to them? Maybe seeing a dr who does research and sees patients who aren't involved in the research side is not a good idea? Thanks Floridagal

Thought this might interest you. There are several ways that doctors get paid by drug companies.


Sen. Grassley To Propose Legislation That Would Require Prescription Drug Makers To Disclose Payments Made to Physicians for Consulting, Lectures, Seminar Attendance

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last week said he would introduce legislation that would require drug makers to make public payments to any physician who bills Medicare and Medicaid programs, the New York Times reports. Other lawmakers also support such a federal registry, and several states -- including Minnesota, Vermont and Maine -- have state-level registries.

In an investigation into physician payments by drug makers, Grassley contacted universities that require academic researchers to disclose industry payments. He found that the universities did not verify the payment amounts researchers claimed. In addition, they did not make the information public, according to the Times. "So if there is a doctor getting thousands of dollars from a drug company -- payments that might be affecting his or her objectivity -- the only people outside the pharmaceutical industry who will probably ever know about this are the people at that very university," Grassley said.

However, John Bentivoglio, a lawyer who represents drug makers, said that payment disclosures might be misinterpreted and that they would be a burden for the industry. "One of the concerns is that these payments are seen as bribes," Bentivoglio said, adding, "The vast majority are lawful payments for services."

In a speech on the Senate floor Thursday, Grassley cited the case of the University of Cincinnati's Melissa DelBello, a child psychiatrist who made $180,000 in just over two years from AstraZeneca for work on the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, which now is widely used in children (Harris, New York Times, 8/4).

Dear Paula, THankyou for your reply and the confirmation that the doctors do receive big bucks for recruiting patients, just to think, 10 patients signed up is 50 or 100,000 dollars. That is a very BIG incentive. I tend to be pretty skeptical sometimes, but I find it difficult to believe that the "do no harm" oath always wins out over the drive for dollars. These poor people that you wrote of, it is so very sad. heartbreaking, really. I definitely need to find a new doctor. FG