Late-Breaking Medical News from Atlanta
By Michael Kaufman
Hunter Thompson would have loved this one. I’m in the press room at the Georgia World Congress Center after making the rounds of the exhibits at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). The peach cobbler at the Schering-Plough booth was scrumptous! Boehringer-Ingelheim has some delicious capuccino made fresh and served by a cheerful young woman named Tresica. Other companies are giving away clever little egg-themed tschotchkes.
I feel sorry for the doctors from Vermont, Minnesota and Massachusetts though. Right next to the peach cobbler and elsewhere throughout the exhibit hall are signs advising them to refrain from accepting any of these freebies in accordance with the laws of their home states.
This phenomenon, which one wag has dubbed the “tschotchke intifada,” is government’s response to the lavish meals, travel and other gifts that pharmaceutical companies used to lay on healthcare professionals, especially ones deemed “thought leaders” or “key opinion leaders” (KOLs in today’s jargon).
It was a not-so-subtle way of trying to influence them to be favorably inclined toward the company’s products, thereby driving up the number of prescriptions and increasing the profit margin. And by all accounts it worked: More than a few unfortunate patients experienced deleterious effects from drugs that were overprescribed as a result of these nefarious practices. But, mercy, does this mean your local doctor can’t have a little bit of peach cobbler or a fresh cup of capuccino when they go to a medical meeting?
Meanwhile the companies have found other ways to drive prescriptions, most notably by direct-to-consumer advertising on television, radio, and in mass-circulation publications. “Ask your doctor if [fill in the blank] is right for you.” Viva Viagra! Thank you, Novartis.
The biggest news to come out of the ASRM meeting can be summed up by one of the headlines: “Octo-Doc Gets Seal of Disapproval.” Doctor Michael Kamrava, who runs the West Coast IVF (in vitro fertillization) Clinic in Beverly Hills, was kicked out of the ASRM for his “persistent failure to live up to our standards,” explained Sean Tipton, spokesman for the group. Kamrava is the fertility specialist whose teatments led to the birth of Nadya Suleman’s octuplets as well as her six previous children. Those last eight were probably the last straw.
News of Kamrava’s expulsion has completely overshadowed coverage of some interesting medical advances presented at the meeting, including promising stem-cell research with implications for prevention and treatment of cancer. Kamrava was second only to Beyonce in Monday’s “Most Popular” searches on Yahoo.
Also widely covered was a story reminscent of one of the classic routines on the original “2000 Year-Old Man” album made by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. Brooks, plays a renowned psychiatrist discussing one of his famous cases, a woman named Bernice who compulsively tore paper. “I cured her,” he says proudly. When Reiner asks how, he replies, “I told her, ‘Don’t tear paper…What are you, crazy, tearing paper? Don’t tear paper!'”
The headline Monday from Reuters was, “Want to get pregnant? Just relax.” The story led, “Old-fashioned common-sense advice to just relax may actually work to help some women get pregnant, doctors reported on Monday.” Just relax. Don’t tear paper.
You might also want to listen to a little harp music, according to results of a randomized clinical trial reported at the meeting. Patients undergoing IVF were randomized into two groups, one of which listened to 20 minutes of live harp music during the procedure. The researchers concluded that harp music therapy “significantly decreases self-perceived anxiety levels.” There was also a trend noted “towards improved clinical pregnancy rate in the harp group…” I’d like to see a study comparing the effects of live harp music versus 20 minutes of listening to a Jimi Hendrix album.
I miss Hunter Thompson. And I’m about ready for some more peach cobbler and maybe some more of Tresica’s capuccino. Later.
Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.
Tags: Michael Kaufman
