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Recent Newspaper & Online Columns by Kate Scannell MD

When patients are treated like ATMs, conflicts sure to arise -- Medical Devices

By Dr. Kate Scannell
First Published in Print: 07/10/2011

A FEW weeks ago, I visited a hospitalized friend who was recuperating from hip-replacement surgery. While unpacking the deli items I promised to bring, he said, "Too bad! You just missed my orthopedic surgeon. He invented my hip replacement!"

"Really?" I said, almost spilling a carton of matzo ball soup.

"Yeah, he designed and patented it!" my friend bragged. "And he uses it in all of his hip surgeries!"

But I didn't feel as hip-hip-hooray about the news. An orthopedic surgeon inserting his patented, royalty-generating medical device into my friend's body as though it were an ATM card?

As a rheumatologist who'd cared for many arthritic patients needing joint replacements, I knew that the medical-device market was already steeped with tried-and-true hip replacement models. How could my friend have possibly evaluated the safety and efficacy of his surgeon's new -- and, undoubtedly, more expensive -- device? Was he aware that it had no known or knowable track record? What authentic choice did he truly have when consulting with his one-hip-wonder surgeon?  Read More