Do device and drug companies spend hundreds of millions on doctors in the form of gifts, payments and event sponsorship? Is this inquiry part of a much larger effort to examine the tangled financial relationship between America’s physicians and these industries? Is the meeting centered around ACC principles and ethics?
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Each spring, about 28,000 cardiologists gather at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology to catch up with colleagues and learn about cutting-edge research and new techniques in the fight against heart disease.
But the medical society’s planned meeting in Orlando next year has attracted the attention of a prominent member of Congress, who is investigating a sponsor’s financial ties to the medical device industry for possible conflict of interest.
Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin, has sent a letter to the president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) requesting information about the group’s recently announced five-year partnership with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF).
The New York-based nonprofit foundation, led by top heart specialists, will jointly sponsor with ACC a meeting called the i2 Summit for interventional cardiologists to be held concurrently with the annual ACC convention March 29-31. This subspecialty of cardiology involves using nonsurgical procedures for treating heart disease, such as using tiny mesh stents to prop open clogged arteries.
Noting that the foundation receives funding from a variety of medical device manufacturers, “the potential for this partnership to influence clinical practice raises questions concerning the continued impartiality of your organization,” Kohl wrote ACC President Dr. Douglas Weaver in a July 22 letter. A conference organized by CRF annually counts Fridley-based Medtronic Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. as sponsors.
Kohl, who is chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said the country’s senior citizens must have access to accurate and unbiased information concerning their health care…
To that end, Kohl cosponsored legislation in Congress last year that would require drug and medical device companies to publicly post on a government website any payments to doctors. These payments include consulting fees, funds for entertainment and travel, as well as participation in conferences or continuing medical education. The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee this year. ACC supports the disclosure legislation.
ACC Chief Executive Dr. Jack Lewin said the society is happy to cooperate with Kohl’s inquiry, which he believes was prompted by what he called a “disgruntled party” within the society. He said the ACC needed to find a new partner for the i2 Summit after the previous sponsor, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, decided to hold its annual meeting separately…
Beyond clinical research, the newly hired CRF designs and sponsors educational meetings, workshops and expert panels, including an annual meeting for interventional cardiologists every fall called Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics.
A spokeswoman for the foundation referred questions regarding the Kohl inquiry to the American College of Cardiology.
Many of the foundation’s officers are well-regarded in interventional cardiology, including founder and chairman emeritus Dr. Martin Leon of the Columbia University Medical Center. Leon was the primary investigator for two clinical trials sponsored by Medtronic that gauged the safety and effectiveness of its Endeavor drug-coated heart stent.
In addition, CRF’s current chairman, Dr. Gregg Stone, was the principal investigator of the pivotal trial for Taxus, a drug-coated heart stent made by Boston Scientific that remains the market leader…