Healthcare Should Not Be For Sale—But It Is.

Imagine…

You’re a patient in the hospital, and a young doctor (who just started three weeks ago) comes in to your room and says, ‘Seems like you have a kidney infection. Hmmm. That can be bad. I used to be able to check the website called Guideline.gov, which is an online database of the best ways to treat medical problems. However, it just got shuttered by the government for lack of funding, so it’s really hard for me to know what’s the best way to treat your problem. So instead I’m just gonna have to rely on my 3 weeks of experience…Hey--what do you think we should do?’

 Happening Now…

As healthcare consumers, we like to imagine that the medical treatment guidelines our doctors use to decide how to treat our kidney infection, or broken leg, or back pain, or diabetes, or cancer is based on what makes patients the healthiest, as quickly as possible and for as long as possible.

But this is simply not the case. Not because of doctors are purposefully choosing bad treatment guidelines, but rather because the very information given to doctors, nurses and other therapists is tainted by private industry.

 Huh? Let me explain…

 Pay-to-Play Science

Lifesciences and Healthcare are special fields. These fields are the home of evidence, ‘best practices,’ proven approaches, and tried-and-true knowledge accumulated through years of performing studies that evaluate whether one treatment approach or medication is better—or worse—than another treatment approach or medication. This is the fundamental basis of impartial, sound, scientific reasoning.

 Sadly however, the impartiality of scientific neutrality in medicine is slipping away and being replaced by ‘pay-to-play science,’ funded by private industry money, received from big pharma, device manufacturing companies and other private companies that make or sell something within the healthcare industry.

 In fact, well over 85% of clinical guidelines are sponsored by some commercial company—and that number is growing year over year.

 Why Should Consumers Care?

Why is this so important to patients? Because on average, industry-sponsored research is 8 times more likely to find in favor of the study results, which always support the use of the sponsor’s drug or the sponsor’s device.

 Take, for example, an arthritis drug, Vioxx (made by Merck) which was the ‘darling’ for a while after a positive study showed improvement for those suffering from arthritis. Absent from the glowing press releases were the fact that Merck funded the study, and even co-wrote the study results, omitting key incidences of heart troubles. The drug was pulled from the market but only after FDA investigators found that the drug caused an extra 27,000 heart attacks and cardiac-related deaths. (According to The Washington Post.)

 And many other examples abound.

 Big Business. Big Profits

Why is this happening? Because, in the United States, the Healthcare Industry is the second largest slice of our economic pie (only behind housing) which means there are large profits to be made from patients consuming medicines and using medical devices. Geez, even the value of breast feeding newborn babies came under attack recently by the Baby Formula Industry and industry-sponsored U.S. Representatives!

 We Are On Our Own…But We Are Not Alone

As with all for-profit companies, profit is the top line, which means that patient care, patient outcomes and patient health is secondary.

 So, it falls to us, the individual doctor, nurse, patient, scientist to advocate for the plain truth in medicine. We must use the instruments we have, which are our individual voice, our pocket book and our vote to signal that we value unbiased and truthful medicine. And that we too—as a collective—can raise money to support unbiased and credible medical sources like Guideline.gov, and The World Health Organization.

 It’s time for individuals to become the ‘sponsoring industry’ in order to support organizations that are committed to sharing and promoting high quality medicine, gathered from all corners of the earth, so that the average citizen can receive the best care possible.

 I’ll write a check for that.

 About the author: Recognized by LinkedIn as a "Top Voice" in Health Care in 2015 & 2106, & 2107, Julie Kliger is a Healthcare Realist who is passionate about improving health care and improving lives. She is a consultant, speaker and author. She specializes in future-oriented healthcare redesign, implementing new care models and strategic change management.