Conflict of Interest on Medical Boards Abounds

Mesh Medical Device News Desk, May 18, 2015 ~ Thanks to Joleen Chambers, a patient advocate a tireless champion of a patient's right to know.

She writes to Mesh News Desk about important issues you can be involved with to help resolve the major conflicts that exist on your state medical boards. This is important to everyone and is something you can do something about! Thank you Consumers Union for your Safe Patient Project!

Dear Fellow Advocates/Activists,

Please help me share these two links with your networks:

http://www.reportingonhealth.org/2015/05/08/overlooked-court-case-puts-industry-friendly-state-medical-boards-notice#comment-70396

http://safepatientproject.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FINAL-NC-Press-Release-5-4-15-1.pdf

Ask them to follow up by contacting their State Attorney General to support this letter and to change the composition of the state Medical Board to a supermajority of non-conflicted public members or provide state supervision to prevent anticompetitive conduct. A personal story of how a harmed patient had been affected would be appropriate.

Public Citizen provided this report several years ago about the conduct of state medical boards (here).

Jo