BLOGSCAN - Whose Interests Do Medical Societies Promote?

On the Alison Bass blog, Alison Bass (no surprise) wrote about an important topic that needs more discussion. It turns out that several big medical societies recently threatened to pull their meetings out of Massachusetts ostensibly because of concerns that a new state law regulating drug and device marketing would make it impossible to hold the meetings. Ms Bass is skeptical about that claim, but did note that the medical societies got funding from drug or device companies, companies that are generally not happy with any laws that restrict their marketing practices, or make these practices more transparent. The important topic here is how medical societies, which once we thought were meant to promote doctors' ideals (and to be honest, their interests), now seem to be creatures of drug, biotechnology, and device companies, to the detriment of doctors' ideals and interests.