Dr. Toby Cosgrove, President and CEO, Cleveland Clinic

The recent online posting of the business ties of doctors at the Cleveland Clinic is believed to be the first such comprehensive public disclosure.

While patients can now see if their doctors are getting money from pharmaceutical companies and medical device firms, Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove says it’s important to understand that the work physicians do with such companies is necessary in response to limited government spending on the medical research needed to develop new treatments. "We need to interact with companies because we need their products, and we need them to continually improve," says Cosgrove.

The Clinic’s physician directory provides a biography for each doctor, and when applicable, disclosure statements. Doctors and researchers who get $5,000 a year or more in consulting payments and royalty and equity interests will be disclosed, along with the names of companies that pay them. Cosgrove, for example lists five companies from which he gets royalties for inventions or discoveries – Allegiances (Cardinal Health), AtriCure, Edwards Lifesciences, Kapp Surgical, and Terumo.

In the Nov. 4 Medical Edge article, “And the ban plays on,” it was reported that the The University of Minnesota Medical School might join a growing number of supporters of bans on gifts to doctors from medical-device and drug companies. And in the Massachusetts State Senate, a proposed bill to ban all gifts by drug companies to doctors includes a $5,000 fine and two years in prison for any doctor, family member or employee accepting such gifts. Under the bill the following would be prohibited: gifts (including payments), entertainment, meals, travel, honoraria, subscriptions and office supplies. The distribution of drug samples would not be prohibited. The Massachusetts bill would be the country’s first such statewide ban.