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| Here's an article for those who are following the "business" of
medicine. Doesn't have to do with LASIK, but how medical manufacturers
are rewarding doctors who use their products--kinda like co-management.
Implant Program for Heart Device Was a Sales Spur - New York Times
"By BARRY MEIER
Published: September 27, 2005
By January, about 80 cardiologists nationwide completed an evaluation
run by the Guidant Corporation of one of its products, an improved
electrical component, known as a lead, that connects an implanted
cardiac device to the heart.
In exchange for implanting the lead in three patients and completing
five survey forms, each physician received $1,000 from Guidant.
"The primary purpose of the study was to get feedback on how well the
system worked," said Dr. Wayne O. Adkisson, a cardiologist in
Portsmouth, Va., who took part.
The program did generate feedback. But internal Guidant documents and
e-mail messages provided to The New York Times suggest that the
initiative also had another apparent goal - increasing sales of the
company's most sophisticated and expensive heart devices. Those devices
are advanced pacemakers called cardiac resynchronization therapy
devices, or C.R.T.'s. They cost about $29,000 each.
The program proved so successful in increasing Guidant C.R.T. sales that
when the survey ended in January, company executives sent around
congratulatory e-mail messages, the records show. "It generated 300+
implants," one January e-mail message stated. "Let's say that just 25%
were incremental ... that yields >$2 million in new sales with
physicians who are not necessarily Guidant friendly. We paid each
physician who completed all five surveys $1,000 so our total cost was
$80,000.""
more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/b....html?th&emc=th
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~RT
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