Conflict of Interest in Medical Research and Journal Articles
Here is a recent article in the New York Times on the conflict of interest between researchers and their published findings: their failure to be transparent about receiving substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies. Basically, many research findings are paid advertising from pharmaceutical companies, and the “prestigious journals” are the advertisers delivery platform, which is also funded by pharmaceutical companies.
Today, in the New York Times, the article states, “Calls for transparency stem from concerns that researchers’ ties to the health and drug industries increase the odds they will, consciously or not, skew results to favor the companies with whom they do business. Studies have found that industry-sponsored research tends to be more positive than research financed by other sources.” (December 8, 2018)
From my perspective, money from pharmaceutical companies sustains the medical field. This money is more than frequent incidents of bribery; it pays for the essential functioning of the medical system, from medical training to its publications. Medicine would not survive without its symbiotic partner: the pharmaceutical company. In fact, the parasite that initially climbed onto medicine’s back has so overwhelmed its host, that it now controls its functioning.
It is no wonder that the medical field chooses pharmaceutical approaches to nearly every chronic illness and has conflicts with those choosing natural, holistic interventions that allow patients to truly heal. Conventional medicine’s conflict with integrative medicine stems from its conflict of interest: being paid by the pharmaceutical companies.