In a Nov. 5 article in the NY Times, Barry Meier takes more than a scathing perspective of the device industry. By the account given, the medical device industry runs like a series of businesses (gasp) with the audacity to focus on profit. But it gets worse, since Mr. Meier asserts that this profit motive is secondary only to self-preservation (if one were to swap "device industry" with "tobacco industry" in his text, there would be little difference in the argument). Further exacerbating the resulting high costs of devices, he says, is the fact that the physicians who prescribe medical devices are either all ignorant of anything that distinguishes one device from another, or they don't care, or they are paid by manufacturers — with no apparent exception.
This type of hyperbole is precisely what prohibits meaningful efforts at reform. If the device industry is demonized, then the opportunity to have them part of the solution — since their only choice is to contribute to a solution, because maintaining the status quo is impossible — is lost. The characterization of the device industry in this way is far closer to caricature than truth.
Costs Surge for Medical Devices, But Benefits Are Opaque
Posted via email from medmarket's posterous
