I’ve commented numerous times on my general fear of conflict of interest between doctors and pharma firms so it was great to be interviewed on a related subject by Modern Healthcare. Andis interviewed me for his piece HIMSS exec denies conflict in role on RMD board.
I told Andis that Davis’ appointment to the board of advisors at a for-profit health IT firm while he’s currently serving as a HIMSS executive is nothing new or terribly worrisome so long as it’s public and transparent. It wasn’t something I liked but I could live with it because the chance of real harm is limited.
What I real trouble with are cases where care providers like physicians are on secret or at least little-publicized pharma advisory boards. Health IT executives that serve in associations or vice-versa can’t really do too much harm. Doctors prescribing drugs for which there may be a conflict of interest is, of course, another matter. I personally don’t know any docs that have such conflicts of interest but some of them know other docs that might.
