Editor’s note: Once again Larry was too depressed to write the 2016 yearly review. (Actually, he’s hiding under his bed.) Veteran healthcare journalist and eternal optimist Candide Corn has again kindly agreed to take over the task this year. Candide’s motto is “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” What a great year!…
Novartis Contest Rewards Positive Peer Review Articles About Entresto
December 15, 2016 by 3 Comments
(See the bottom of the story for updates. Since the original publication of the story the cardiologists on the “peer review panel” have resigned and Novartis has withdrawn its support for the contest.) Despite the fact that it had one of the biggest clinical trial successes in recent years, the Novartis heart failure drug Entresto has…
Seeking Profit and Investors, Rogue Lab Moves Into Small Hospitals
December 9, 2016 by 6 Comments
A controversial new laboratory company specializing in “advanced cardiovascular risk testing” is developing an innovative, highly profitable– and legally dubious– new business model. Details of the scheme are spelled out in a “Management Presentation” slide presentation sent to me by a confidential source. The slide presentation, according to my source, is being shown by executives at True Health…
Telling People What They Want To Hear: Alt-Med And Donald Trump
December 4, 2016 by 12 Comments
Donald Trump won* the election because he told people what they wanted to hear. Alternative medicine is growing in popularity because it tells people what they want to hear. Of course, there’s a big difference between telling people what they want to hear and actually delivering on those promises. He can say it as often as he…
Lunchroom Scandal At The AHA: Day Two Of Buttergate
November 15, 2016 by 5 Comments
–After a CardioBrief investigation the American Heart Association changes the lunchroom menu There is no better proof that journalism can change the world– both for the good and the bad– than Buttergate. Yesterday your intrepid reporter exposed the ongoing scandal of Buttergate taking place within the press lunchroom at the American Heart Association meeting in New…
Is The American Heart Association Trying To Kill Health Reporters?
November 14, 2016 by 4 Comments
The answer is no. The AHA is not trying to kill us. But its dietary advice is consistently confusing and occasionally wrong, and health reporters in New Orleans may end up as collateral damage. Just take a look at what’s being served in the press room at the big American Heart Association meeting going on now…
Debaters At Interventional Cardiology Meeting Literally Put The Gloves On
October 30, 2016 by 1 Comment
The world’s premiere interventional cardiology meeting now features cardiologists wearing boxing shorts and gloves. The Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting in Washington, DC kicked off with a “Saturday Night Fights” theme for its debate session, and the participants– nearly all greying, eminent male interventional cardiologists– adopted the theme whole-heartedly. All lovey-dovey at the start of #TCT2016 fights pic.twitter.com/upGprIcxkQ…
No, $75 Million Won’t Cure Heart Disease Or Reinvent Science
October 7, 2016 by 6 Comments
–Silicon Valley hype and hubris come to cardiology. We may be close to peak hype and hubris in cardiology. This week some of the smartest people on the planet said that $75 million can help find new ways to prevent heart disease AND, as if that’s not enough, completely reinvent the way we do science….
Trump’s Risk For A Cardiac Event Is Seven Times Hilary Clinton’s Risk
October 5, 2016 by 6 Comments
Editor’s note: The following guest post is reprinted with permission from Dr. Anthony Pearson, a cardiologist who is the medical director of the Echocardiography Laboratory and Anticoagulation Clinic at St. Lukes Hospital, Chesterfield, Missouri. Dr. Pearson writes The Skeptical Cardiologist blog, where this post originally appeared. Donald Trump recently appeared on the Dr. Oz show and handed a letter to the…
Cardiologists: Thumbs Down To SPRINT
August 28, 2016 by 2 Comments
[Updated, August 29, August 30] –SPRINT should not be used in guidelines to lower blood pressure targets. Should the SPRINT trial be used by guideline committees to lower systolic blood pressure targets? After listening to a high-powered debate at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Rome on Sunday, most audience members gave thumbs down…
Dollars For Heart Docs: 2015 Edition
August 24, 2016 by 1 Comment
–Cardiologists received more than $200 million from industry in 2015. In 2015 cardiologists and other cardiovascular specialists received more than $200 million dollars from industry, according to new data released by Medicare. More than 30,000 physicians in cardiovascular medicine received industry payments in 2015, though many of these payments were relatively small amounts. But more…
Clinical Trialists Dig In And Vote For Status Quo
August 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
–Doctors who got famous for doing clinical trials resist changes to the clinical trial system. It should probably come as no surprise that hundreds of clinical trial investigators whose positions and livelihoods depend largely on the existing clinical trial system have expressed great reluctance and annoyance at a proposal that could radically shake up that system. As…
Top Clinical Investigators Seek To Dampen Impact Of Data Sharing
August 3, 2016 by 3 Comments
Despite earlier concerns by its editors about “data parasites,” the New England Journal of Medicine has now published 4 articles offering support in some form for data sharing. But two of the articles— written by many of the most prominent clinical trial researchers in the United States and Canada— express grave concerns about data sharing…
The Big Dirty Secret Every Doctor Knows
August 2, 2016 by 5 Comments
–Eminence-based medicine is not the exception. It’s the rule. Lately I’ve been writing about eminence-based medicine (here, here, and here). In response to these posts Saurabh Jha, a well-known radiologist and health-policy critic, asked me on Twitter: “How do you find these utter gems?!” I was surprised by Jha’s question. At first I thought…
Interventional Cardiology And The Rejection Of Science
July 22, 2016 by 6 Comments
–Prominent interventional cardiologist says clinical trials are slowing progress In their eagerness to embrace a glorious future of ever more spectacular technology-based advances, interventional cardiology— a subspecialty never exactly known for caution, patience, or self reflection— is poised to reject science, evidence-based medicine, and randomized controlled trials. “Generating and publishing evidence is a tedious job,”…
The Billion Dollar Lab Scandal
July 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment
If you think Theranos is a big story then I have some news for you. There’s another medical laboratory scandal that dwarfs the Theranos story by almost any standard except for hype. The Theranos story is an important sexy Silicon Valley story. It’s more about an imagined shimmering future than about the greasy present we actually…
The Wild West Of New Laboratory Scams
July 11, 2016 by 34 Comments
It’s like the wild west. With no sheriff acting to impose law and order, many laboratory companies are now deploying a wide variety of new scams to gain new business. The new scams have emerged in the wake of the collapse and bankruptcy of Health Diagnostics Laboratory (see the bottom of this story for links to previous coverage)…
Documents Reveal Rogue Laboratory Company’s Unorthodox Billing Practices
June 8, 2016 by 4 Comments
–Promised in writing to not bill patients, then changed its tune Records and emails newly posted on the web by a physician document the strategy used by a controversial new laboratory company to bypass laws and major safeguards designed to prevent fraud. Nearly 2 years ago, it became known that the federal government was investigating…
The American Heart Association’s Strong Stance Against Science
May 25, 2016 by 8 Comments
Once again the American Heart Association has taken a strong stance against science. Of course, that’s not how the AHA phrases it. In its own words the AHA says it “strongly refutes the findings” of a “flawed study” which “you shouldn’t use… to inform yourself about how you’re going to eat.” But in fact the…
On Road To Bankruptcy A Stent Company Invested in Marty Leon’s VC Fund
May 3, 2016 by 1 Comment
More questions are being raised about the research and financial activities of Palmaz Scientific, the bankrupt medical device company founded by Julio Palmaz, the co-inventor of the stent. In the middle of severe financial troubles that eventually brought the company to bankruptcy Palmaz Scientific found enough money to invest in a venture capital fund. The VC Fund,…
Vampire Lab Turns To Old Trick To Grow Business: Physician Owned Labs
February 11, 2016 by 15 Comments
(Updated) True Health Diagnostics, the new laboratory that bought the assets and adopted the business model of the disgraced and bankrupt laboratory company Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL), is turning to some old, unethical, and illegal tricks to grow its business. As I’ve reported previously, one key to the spectacular growth of HDL laboratory involved surreptitious…
Precision Medicine, Stuck In Second Grade, Flunks Test Of Clinical Utility
January 5, 2016 by 4 Comments
One of the great scientific achievements of the past generation has been the identification and characterization of the genetic underpinnings for many diseases. By combining genetic information with other forms of research doctors have been able to reach a much deeper understanding of many diseases. In a few cases genetic information has proved useful in screening…
2015: The Year We Finally Cured Heart Disease!
December 27, 2015 by 1 Comment
Editor’s note: Larry was too depressed to write the 2015 yearly review. Veteran healthcare journalist and eternal optimist Candide Corn volunteered to take over the task this year. Candide’s motto is “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” What a great year for cardiology! The year brought us an unending…
Does Anyone Really Think Industry Funded CME Is Independent?
October 28, 2015 by 2 Comments
Does anyone really think that commercially supported continuing medical education (CME) is truly independent? Or does anyone really think that it has the primary goal of delivering quality medical education? A few weeks ago John Fauber and colleagues wrote an important story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and MedPage Today about the role of CME in helping…
Amgen Requires Patients in Repatha Copay Program To Surrender Their Privacy
October 22, 2015 by 3 Comments
(This story was updated on October 23 with a statement from Amgen. It was again updated on October 27 with new information about Amgen’s patient privacy policy for a second drug, Enbrel.) (For an important followup to this story please see: Amgen Takes The Pledge To Respect Patient Privacy) The tumult over the new cholesterol…
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