Medtronic to Voluntarily Disclose Payments to U.S. Physicians

Medtronic recently announced its commitment to voluntarily disclose payments to U.S. physicians. The company will begin capturing payment data for all of its businesses on January 1, 2010, and will publicly report this information annually. The first disclosure will occur in March of 2011 and will address payments made to physicians during calendar year 2010. The company will commission an annual third-party audit to demonstrate its commitment to the accuracy of these postings and will make a summary of the audit results public.

Medtronic will report the amount paid in consulting fees, royalties, or honoraria for physicians who receive payments of $5,000 or more per year from Medtronic. Consulting agreements include counsel for areas such as education and training, clinical trial design and administration, and product design and safety. The company currently plans to report these data on its company Web site.

“Relationships between industry and doctors are essential to innovation, education, and training in our industry,” says Bill Hawkins, chairman and CEO. “Through greater transparency about the nature of these relationships, we will help people better understand how important they are to developing life-saving and enhancing products for patients who need them.”

Medtronic initiated a first step toward greater transparency when it launched its online Donations Registry in August 2008, which makes public donations given by Medtronic to U.S. customers or organizations affiliated with customers, including patient groups and medical societies.

Source: Medtronic

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