Originally Published MX March/April 2005
EDITOR'S PAGE
Preemption and Perception
Few medical device executives are likely to admit that they know about any unethical business conduct within their companies or in the industry as a whole. While acknowledging that intense competition can lead to serious temptation, industry leaders insist that very few device companies or their reps engage in such practices.
With industry's reputation at stake, many medtech companies have exerted considerable pressure to ensure that ethical practices receive more than mere lip service. At the beginning of 2004, for instance, industry association AdvaMed (Washington, DC) put into effect a code of ethics to guide interactions among medical device companies and healthcare providers. Intended for industrywide adoption, the code has been viewed as a preemptive strike against the potential for misbehavior among device companies.
But apparently not everyone agrees that the code has been effective. In a recent survey by the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE; Tampa, FL), 79% of respondents said that they were very or moderately concerned about physicians being influenced by medical device companies to perform a certain procedure. That level of alarm was second only to concern over physicians who refuse patients without insurance (80%), and was even greater than respondents' concern over the influence of pharmaceutical companies (76%).
Perhaps the perception of wrongdoing exceeds reality. Despite their strong concern, only 7.8% of respondents to ACPE's survey identified device company influence as the most-frequent ethical challenge in their own institutions—less than half the percentage reporting undue influence from pharmaceutical companies (19.7%).
But with medical device companies increasingly becoming the targets of federal fraud and abuse investigations, even a mistaken perception of wrongdoing places a company's existence and industry's reputation in jeopardy. Medtech executives can best prevent such misperceptions by actively supporting ethical conduct—beginning in their own companies.
Copyright ©2005 MX
