"Find out how much pharma has paid your neurologist HERE $$$$", via CCSVI in Multiple Sclerose

Ever wonder how much money pharmaceutical companies are paying your neurologist?
Ever think that perhaps receiving money from pharma and subsequently recommending treatment and clinical trials to their patients might be a CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

Well, you are not alone.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act in the United States, pharma payouts to physicians are now documented on an easy to access website:

Pro Publica's Dollars for Docs
https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/

Here are some of the top MS specialists in the US, and here are their staggering $$$$$ numbers for 2014.
This money represents some, but not all, of the consulting/advisory fees paid by pharmaceutical companies, directly to MS specialists. I'm just randomly picking out some of my least favorite, most anti-CCSVI docs, and the numbers speak for themselves. Why look into the vascular connection to MS, when immune modulating drugs are making one so much $$$$ ???

Dr. Omar Khan, Wayne State University Dept. of Neurology $377,000
($222,000 for Copaxone!!!! YOWZA!)
Author of some of the most vitriolic, anti-CCSVI research papers ever published.
(Well done, faithful servant)

Dr. Elliot Frohman, Head of MS Center UT Southwestern Medical Center $340,000 ($191,000 from Aubagio alone!)
(Invited to speak at first CCSVI conference, he admitted CCSVI looked a lot like normal pressure hydrocephalus---but later determined CCSVI was not something very valuable to study. Wonder why?)

Dr. Edward Fox, MS specialist, Director of Central Texas MS Clinic $377,000
(on the NMMS research committee---deciding which research gets funded. Really???)

Dr. Patricia Coyle, Stony Brook MS Care Center, NY $245,000 ($104,000 from Aubagio!)
Also an invited guest at the first CCSVI conference in Bologna--decided not to follow up any any more vascular research. How can neurologists make money treating a vascular condition?

Dr. Aaron Miller, head of MS Center at Mount Sinai Hospital, NY $129,000
Dr. Miller also advises the National MS Society on which research projects should be funded.
(He laughed in my face at the AAN Brain Fair---saying that there was no connection between blood flow and MS)

Dr. Timothy Vollmer, head of Rocky Mountain MS Clinic in Colorado $102,000

The top paid neuro I found was Jesse Cedarbaum, who practices at Mt. Sinai Hospital and in Woodbridge, CT---making a staggering $829,000 last year from Biogen.

Want to play? Look up your neuro, or an outspoken CCSVI critic, and see who is buying their favor.
I only wish we had a site like this for our Canadian friends. I'm sure we'd see similar findings.
For the record, Jeff's neuro had under $1,000---and she's been great about not pushing any new drugs on Jeff (well, since I shared my Tysabri research with her, at least...)

pretty maddening, huh?
Joan

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