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 Mission Statement
The Association for Medical Ethics consists of physicians from every specialty of medicine. The purpose of the Association is to promote patient care and evidence-based medicine and to provide increased public awareness of the detrimental and pervasive financial influence of industry on many health care providers and patients. The Association for Medical Ethics promotes the care of patients absent of any consideration of financial gain or loss based on choice of surgical equipment, implant, manufacturer, hospital or surgery center. AME members practice informed consent and believe patients have a right to know if their doctor is a paid consultant or distributor for any manufacturer or product. The purpose of this website is to provide consumers and doctors the opportunity to view the opinions of the Association for Medical Ethics members and the most current unbiased research on the latest medical advancements.
Who Are Members
Board certified physicians, licensed health care practitioners, and resident physicians in training, all of whom sign affidavits that they do not accept any money from industry since patient care should be the only primary concern. The Association has over 250 members and members to be from the US, as well as 11 other countries including Iraq, Egypt, and India.
What Is AME
The Association for Medical Ethics site is designed to help both physicians and patients research the most recent medical journal articles on specific popular procedures and to review the consulting agreements that physicians have with medical device companies.
Our site is set up into two categories, Journal Review and Doctor Search. Journal Review is a listing of the most recent medical journal articles on medical procedures. AME rates the quality and predictive value of each study using AME’s five star rating system which is in support of Evidence Based Medicine. AME’s goal is to rate every study published in the English literature in peer reviewed publications as found on Pub Med, the National Institute for Health, of the Department of Health and Human Services (NIH) site for citing medical publications. The studies are then rated as a group under the AME Star system. Five Stars is the best and most predictable data and one star is the worst. click here for Journal Review
Doctor Search was developed to address the issue of authors receiving industry salaries. In 2007, four medical device companies, Zimmer, Inc, Depuy Orthopaedics, Inc, Biomet, Inc, and Smith and Nephew, Inc, reached financial settlements totaling $311 million with the Dept. of Justice to avoided criminal prosecution over financial inducements paid to surgeons. There was no admission of wrong doing with the settlements.
However, the companies agreed to corporate compliance procedures and federal monitoring, according to Department of Justice orders.
The four companies also executed Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), which will expire in 18 months if they meet all of their respective reform requirements.
Stryker Orthopedics, Inc., which was not involved in any financial settlements, voluntarily cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and completed a Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA) with the government, under which Stryker is required to implement all the reforms imposed on the other companies under the DPAs, including 18 months of federal monitoring.
As part of the DPA, all new consulting agreements require physicians to disclose financial arrangements with any company to their patients. The companies are required to disclose the name of each consultant and what they have been paid. This is required to be listed on the company website in an easily accessible fashion.
The Association for Medical Ethics has combined these reports into one searchable database in order to show compensation that doctors have received from each company. Below you can enter a doctor’s name and search if they are listed as a company consultant, and, if they are, see the amount of compensation they were paid.
Click here for Doctor Search |
