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Disease-mongering : markets, medicines and media
A provocative international symposium on the selling of sickness
The inaugural International Conference on Disease-Mongering is to be
held in
Newcastle, Australia April 11-13 2006 At the David Maddison Building,
Royal
Newcastle Hospital, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Invited speakers include David Healy (UK), Steve Woloshin and Lisa
Schwartz
(USA), Leonore Teifer (USA), Iona Heath (UK), Ray Moynihan (Australia),
Ian
Kerridge (Australia) and David Henry (Australia)
In the developed world at least, the ascendancy of market logic has
both
expanded and legitimised the commercialisation of medicine. In the
pharmaceutical sector, competitive enterprise dominates not only the
development of drugs -and increasingly their diffusion - but also the
very
definitions of the illnesses they are used to treat.
Industry capacity for innovation, essential for sustaining high
profitability, has arguably extended beyond the invention of novel
products
to the creation of new illnesses, disorders and dysfunction, and the
expansion of old ones. Using informal alliances with physician and
patient
groups, and with the assistance of public relations experts, drug
companies
now 'brand' conditions just as they brand medicines.
Contentiously characterised as 'disease-mongering' by the late Lynn
Payer
many marketing strategies appear to be about selling sickness in order
to
sell drugs.
In the lead up to this global symposium we are commissioning a series
of
thoughtful academic and accessible discussion papers that will assay
the
role of marketing in contemporary medical practice, and attempt to
understand and challenge the phenomenon of disease-mongering.
The papers will follow the following themes:
(1) A taxonomy of disease-mongering; understanding through
classification
(2) A contemporary case study: the selling of bi-polar disorder
(3) Nothing new under the sun- an historical perspective on the selling
of
sickness- from medicalisation to disease-mongering
(4) The psychology of disease-mongering- do disease-awareness campaigns
make
some people sick?
(5) The role of health professionals - is this about power or money?
(6) The role of patient groups- genuine advocacy or corporate allies?
(7) The role of the spin industry- exposing and confronting the silent
mind-changers in global PR
(8) The role of the media - what role does media play in
disease-mongering,
and how might that change?
(9) The role of government - how might disease-mongering be regulated?
(10) Independent disease-definition strategies- what are the
alternatives to
the current model of entangled panels constantly expanding disease
definitions?
For more details contact david.henry(AT)newcastle(DOT)edu(DOT)au
Future announcements and registration details will be available at
www.diseasemongering.org
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