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3/26/2007

Dr. Brody will part of a panel that will meet in a public forum called "The Ties That Bind ." The panel will discuss the relationship of the university, its students, and faculty to the pharmaceutical industry. It will be held Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 6:00 p.m., at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston. You can read a recent article describing the event below that was published in today's Galveston Daily News. This is open to everyone so please try to attend if your schedule permits.

Other members of the panel include Dr. John Stobo, President, UTMB; Dr. Bernard Milstein, Eye Clinic of Texas; Dr. Thomas Carroll, Today's Dentistry; Dr. Erika Kelly, diplomat with the American Board of Dermatology; UTMB Dr. Dorothy Merritt, Mainland Medical Center, former medical director of HCT Hospice; Paige Carlin, pharmacy manager, Randall's; Swen; and me, George Prill, conference organizer and “patient.”

You can read Dr. Brody's recent article, "Money, not Science, Drives Drugs Research" that was mentioned in the article, and that appeared online in the March 18 Galveston Daily News.

You can also read Dr. Stobo's recent article mentioned in the article online, "Join UTMB Debate on Interest Conflicts."

Make Your Mark on Medical Ethics
By George Prill
The Daily News
Published March 22, 2007

How often do you get the opportunity to discuss beforehand decisions that other people are making and which affect you? Thanks to the president of the University of Texas Medical Branch, Dr. John Stobo, you will now get the opportunity to discuss the relationship of the university, its students and faculty to the pharmaceutical industry. If you take drugs and other medicines, you should be interested.

As I am very interested, I agreed to help lead a public discussion on the subject.

So, you are invited to participate in a public forum with Stobo and others from UTMB at 6 p.m. Tuesday, in the Rosenberg Library in Galveston. Its title is: “The Ties that Bind.”

These “ties” are complicated. If you read Stobo's column (“Join UTMB debate on interest conflicts,” The Daily News, March 14), you would know that they are stressed and under pressure and review. Some academics, like Dr. Howard Brody who wrote a column (“Money, not science, drives drugs research,” The Daily News, March 18), would like to restrict contacts between doctors, students and the pharmaceutical industry. Brody is an advocate of centralized, government control of research funds to be provided by the pharmaceutical industry. However, many in the medical profession believe, as I do, that this would be a big mistake. Who is right?

Many of us have been or will be patients at UTMB. So we have a big stake in these decisions. We learn of new powerful drugs from TV and magazine advertising. Is there too much? Should doctors learn about these drugs directly from the companies that develop them? If not, how will they keep abreast of new drugs and equipment? Should they give us samples of powerful drugs with possibly dangerous side effects before prescribing them?

Should university researchers be on drug companies' payrolls? What are the ethical answers for professors and students? Are they the same answers for doctors far from academia, without the support of specialists, but who are coping with a caseload of patients with a variety of ailments?

In my opinion, other universities formulated their policies on these subjects without leaving the lofty perch in their “ivory towers.”

This forum is a different approach. This is your invitation to participate in the forming of university policy, to talk to Stobo directly.

We want to give everyone a chance to listen to and question members of the medical community who are heavily involved and who have definite opinions of their own.

Therefore, we have assembled an outstanding panel.

I wanted to have good representation from the pharmaceutical industry, so I am particularly pleased that John Swen, vice president of science policy and public affairs at Pfizer Global Research and Development, will be joining us. This will not be a one-sided discussion.

This forum is the place to make your views known. Remember the old admonition, “Speak now or forever hold your peace?”

The panel includes these distinguished members of the medical community: Dr. Howard Brody, director, Institute for the Medical Humanities; University of Texas Medical Branch Dr. Bernard Milstein, Eye Clinic of Texas; Dr. Thomas Carroll, Today's Dentistry; Dr. Erika Kelly, diplomat with the American Board of Dermatology; UTMB Dr. Dorothy Merritt, Mainland Medical Center, former medical director of HCT Hospice; Paige Carlin, pharmacy manager, Randall's; Swen; and me, George Prill, conference organizer and “patient.”

George C. Prill is a resident of Galveston.

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