Conflicts of interest

Possible Conflicts for Doctors Are Seen on Medical Devices
By REED ABELSON, The New York Times, September 22, 2005

As an assistant professor at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Dr. William Overdyke oversaw operations to replace worn-down knees. From 2000 through the middle of 2001, whenever a patient needed an artificial knee, he or the residents he supervised implanted one made by Sulzer Medical, state documents show.

Dr. Overdyke has said that he used the Sulzer implant because it was the best available. But Louisiana state officials say he had another incentive as well: the $175,000 a year that he stood to make from contracts with the company. The contracts called for him to consult on product design and "promote and educate other surgeons" on the virtues of Sulzer products.

Before signing with Sulzer, Dr. Overdyke said, he had never used the company's artificial knee. Earlier he had a contract with another company, Wright Medical. And during that time, he and his residents largely used Wright's artificial knees.

Dr. Overdyke paid $10,000 in fines after investigators determined that his consulting arrangements with Sulzer were an improper conflict of interest under the state ethics code. Hospital officials said they had been unaware of his relationship with the company.

Yet in a variety of ways, many doctors have unusually close, if largely unseen, ties to device makers. And those relationships are a central issue on an emerging battleground in the health care wars: the upward cost spiral of implantable medical devices.
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