Medical Device Maker Payments to Physician Subject to Probe
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa is continuing his probe of improper relationships between big pharmaceutical manufacturers and physicians. He is now investigating the financial ties between the head of spine surgery at the University of Minnesota and device giant Medtronic Inc.
Sen. Grassley sent letters Tuesday to the chief executive of Minnesota’s Fairview Health Services, and the director of Team Spine-Minnesota Inc., requesting information regarding their relationship with Dr. David Polly of the University of Minnesota's Medical School.
An internationally known spine surgeon, Polly has been a Medtronic consultant since leaving the military in 2003. Between 2003 and 2007, Medtronic paid him $1.2 million for consulting, expenses and honoraria -- details that were unearthed in Grassley's ongoing investigation of conflicts of interest in medicine.
Grassley also sent letters to University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks requesting communications sent or received by Polly. Citing state laws on privacy, the University said it will release those documents only if Polly consents.
Consulting relationships are not uncommon in medical technology, but critics allege that the monetary nature of these relationships could skew doctors' preferences and create conflicts of interest in the types of devices they use on patients. Many such instances have been recently revealed by Grassley, leading many medical institutions to revise their policies.
Grassley's letter to Fairview's Eustis asks for a monthly accounting of all devices used by Polly in surgery since January 2008, as well as an explanation regarding Polly's role in Fairview's choice of devices used in spine procedures. The senator also asked whether Polly disclosed his relationship with Medtronic to Fairview.
In Tuesday's letter, Grassley highlights several comments Polly made during an interview with Minnesota Public Radio and to a university conflict-of-interest committee in 2006 regarding his government-funded research on a Medtronic bone-growth product.
The comments "appear to be false or misleading both to your review committee back in 2006 and in a recent radio interview," Grassley wrote.
In 2006, Polly agreed to a conflict-management plan after a university committee determined that his relationship with Medtronic represented a potential conflict of interest.
