How I Sold Low–T

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This lecture series highlights advocacy and policy experts who provide technical assistance and leadership development for physicians, residents, and medical students interested in conflict-of-interest reform efforts.
This lecture was recorded on August 28, 2013.
Click to listen or download (1:00:31)  – Link to Call Notes

How I Sold Low–T:
Guarding against Industry Influence

Featured Speaker:

Stephen Braun, Medical Writer
Amherst, Massachusetts

Stephen Braun has worked for nearly 30 years as a journalist, most recently as a freelance medical writer.  During the past 10 years, Stephen has written and developed physician and consumer educational materials.  Stephen’s presentation will describe how drug companies often pay for the creation of seemingly objective physician or consumer education media products while obscuring or minimizing their role and/or the identity of the actual writers or producers of the products.  Despite progress in raising the level of transparency about funding, conflicts of interest, and ghost-writing, drug companies remain free to pursue subtle and, therefore, effective-means of marketing. CME programs and “consensus panels” continue to be funded by companies selling products directly tied to the messages being conveyed by industry created “educational” materials. Patient education materials continue to be created that, while factually accurate, subtly shift attitudes by the selection and/or omission of ideas that would undermine the funder’s preferred paradigm.

Call Recording – click to listen or download (1:00:31)
Link to Call Notes

Read Stephen Braun’s recent article in JAMA – Internal Medicine:
Promoting “Low T”A Medical Writer’s Perspective
JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(15):1458-1460.

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This event is offered as part of the Partnership to Advance Conflict-free Medical Education(PACME). This partnership and related materials were made possible by a grant from the state Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program which is funded by the multi-state settlement of consumer fraud claims regarding the
marketing of the prescription drug Neurontin.

The Partnership to Advance Conflict‐free Medical Education (PACME) is a joint project of the National Physicians Alliance,  the American Medical Student Association, Community Catalyst, and the Pew Charitable Trusts designed to create both external and internal pressure for medical schools and academic medical centers to adopt strong new conflict-of-interest policies.

Learn more at NPAlliance.org/conflict-free