Drug Companies to Disclose Physician Payments - This Week on Sound Medicine

Drug companies commonly pay doctors to research and represent their wares. This week on Sound Medicine, IU health policy expert Aaron Carroll, M.D., discusses an upcoming law requiring companies to disclose these payments.

Sound Medicine airs at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, on WFYI, 90.1 FM. For the airtime on a public radio station near you, check the Sound Medicine website.

New disclosure law for drug firms. The Food and Drug Administration’s new “sunshine” rule due to take effect soon requires drug and medical device companies to publicly disclose payments they make to physicians who help them develop, assess and promote new products. IU health policy expert Aaron Carroll, M.D., discusses the payments and the reasoning behind the new federal standards. Dr. Carroll directs the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research at the IU School of Medicine.

Daily aspirin recommendations, updated. An aspirin a day helps prevent heart attack and stroke, right? Maybe not. According to a new study of aspirin use, the regimen may do more harm than good in some patients. Sound Medicine contributor Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber , M.D., explains who is likely to benefit, and who probably won’t, from a daily dose of aspirin. Dr. Rohr-Kirchgraber is executive director of IU’s National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. She has a clinical practice at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis.

Aspirin endangers elderly patients. Every year about 100,000 older adults in the United States end up in the emergency room as a result of an accidental drug overdose. Surprising new research reveals that aspirin is one of the four medications leading to emergency hospitalizations. Sound Medicine’s David Crabb, M.D., speaks with study author Dan Budnitz, M.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Budnitz directs the CDC’s Medication Safety Program in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.

Adele’s throat problems. The Grammy Awards are on TV this weekend, and British singer Adele is up for six nominations. Certainly, her fans are eager to know if she’s recovered from the vocal hemorrhages that forced her to cancel a tour last year. To find out what caused Adele’s problem, and how it’s typically treated, Sound Medicine’s Steve Bogdewic, Ph.D., raises the question with head and neck specialist Taha Shipchandler, M.D. An assistant professor of clinical otolaryngology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. Shipchandler practices with IU Health Physicians.

Also this week: In this week’s Sound Medicine Checkup, nanotechnology enables targeted chemotherapy, and in our Did You Know? feature, common household chemicals can reduce vaccine effectiveness. Also, some words of encouragement for those of us with “grown-up brains,” from Barbara Strauch, author of The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind.

Sound Medicine is an award-winning radio program co-produced by the Indiana University School of Medicine and WFYI Public Radio (90.1 FM). Sound Medicine is underwritten by Indiana University Health Physicians and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

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Listen to Sound Medicine on the following Indiana public radio stations:
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The show also airs on these out-of state public radio stations:
KSKA (Anchorage, Alaska), KPOV (Bend, Ore.),  KEOS (College Station, Texas), KRCC (Colorado Springs, Colo.), KUAF (Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Ark.), KFTW (Fort Worth, Texas), KMHA (Four Bears, N.D.), KIDE (Hoopa Valley, Calif.), KEDM (Monroe, La.), WCMU (Mount Pleasant, Mich.), KUHB (Pribilof Islands, Alaska), KPBX (Spokane, Wash.), WCNY and WRVO-1 (Syracuse, N.Y.), KTNA (Talkeetna, Alaska) and WYSU (Youngstown, Ohio).

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Aaron Carroll, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics; Director for the Center of Health Policy and Professionalism Research, Indiana University School of Medicine