AdvaMed (Advanced Medical Technology Association) and its medical-device member   companies support shedding light on the financial relationships between the medical industry and doctors according to a New York Times report. Lawmakers have included in the healthcare reform bills under consideration by Congress, “sunshine” provisions pertaining to now-common business practices, such as device and drug company payments to doctors for speeches and consulting services, which may influence patient care while contributing to soaring healthcare costs.

Though the public often benefits when doctors and researchers collaborate, there needs to be a complete national disclosure system, says Dr. Bernard Lo, a professor of medicine and director of the medical ethics program at the University of California, San Francisco.  Such a system, he says, would enable the public to judge whether such relationships exerted too much influence on patient cares.

AdvaMed’s General Counsel Christopher White concurs: “The physician relationships are the ones the public has the keenest interest in understanding.”