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Psychiatrists Dominate "Doctor-Dollars" Database Listing Big Pharma Payments

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/731028

October 22, 2010 — Psychiatrists dominate a list of physicians receiving the most in payments from pharmaceutical companies, according to a free, interactive database of such payments launched by investigative journalism group ProPublica, in partnership with other US media outlets

So far, the database includes payments made by 7 of the biggest pharmaceutical companies — some of which the US Department of Justice has required to disclose physician payments as part of settlement agreements over illegal drug marketing — which account for a boggling $258 million in payments to roughly 17,700 physicians. The plan is to add 70 more companies.

Any US physician is searchable by name in the database.

"Receiving payments isn't necessarily wrong," says the homepage for the Dollars for Docs, "but it does raise ethical issues."

The payments covered by the project include fees for such items as speaking, consulting, meals, and travel; the different types of payments from different companies have been compiled, streamlined, and tallied by ProPublica.

The 10 highest-paid physicians in 2009 to 2010 for each of the 7 companies are listed on the site, spanning all medical disciplines.

Endocrinologist Firhaad Ismail, MD, from Las Vegas, Nevada, ranked number one in pharmaceutical industry compensation, receiving $303,558 from GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, and Merck. Dr. Ismail did not return messages left with his office requesting an interview