|
|
"Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com" <sbharris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1127351711.623381.136730@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Howard McCollister wrote:
>> "fresh~horses" <fresh~horses@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:1127334372.002619.148180@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > http://www2.epocrates.com/index.html
>> >
>> > Check the "Honors" box on the left.
>> >
>>
>> epocrates is generally small potatoes for honoraria, as are most of the
>> online offers. I, and most doctors I know, get such invitations by email
>> and
>> regular mail at least a couple of times every week - fill out a survey by
>> phone or mail and get $100. Drug companies mostly, but some equipment
>> manufacturers and some marketing firms. Then, there are various other
>> consulting agreements, usually involving money plus travel expenses,
>> honoraria for speaking engagements....stuff like that. It's nothing
>> new...been going on for many years now.
>>
>> HMc
>
>
>
> COMMENT:
>
> What?? They've been offering ME only $35-- stuff in that range. I just
> got one today in the mail. And for half an hour of my time, I've been
> too lazy to do it. I might, for $100.
>
> I'm trying to figure out how having somebody pay me to tell them how
> much of their advertising I listen to, causes harm to the world.
>
> I suppose I could make a long complicated reasoned argument for a
> causal chain, but at the end I wouldn't really believe it. No, the
> answer is, I really am that lazy.
>
> Back when I was an intern making $17,000 a year (which dates me,
> because for a LONG time before that interns made quite a lot less, and
> very shortly thereafter quite a lot more), some of these doctor opinion
> thingies came with a $5 check enclosed. So then the moral problem was
> do you cash the check and NOT do the survey? They did make it clear it
> was on the honor system, and I had no obligation to do the survey (and
> of course no legal one either-- if somebody sends you a check in the
> mail, it's yours).
>
> Dilemas, dilemas. And of course doctors aren't the only people paid to
> fill out marketting surveys. We just get paid a little more. ($100??
> Really? That's obscene. Must be a surgical instrument deal).
>
> SBH
>
> PS. Hey, Howard, did you make your contribution to the Red Cross
> Katrina fund, yet? Good for you. Feel any better? Me, neither.
>
> On future 1040's, it seems I'm due to make a major contribution to "The
> War on Terror." But I can't seem to find anybody in Washington who
> doesn't understand that this is not the same as "The War on Iraq."
> Anyway, they seem to have spent all the money earmarked for the one, on
> the other, instead. Not surprisingly, it doesn't seem to have worked
> very well. If anything, a lot of people find the US just as terrifying
> as ever. More so. So this is all very frustrating, too.
>
> S.
>
Yeh, surgical instruments are big. The technology moves so fast that early
adopters are often sought for preceptorships. My partner and I teach courses
in advanced laparoscopic techniques for 4 different companies. Or maybe it's
4 different divisions of the same company, or some combination in between. I
can never remember. The drug company stuff I just pitch....just too much
trouble. I've declared a personal moratorium on surveys. I carried it too
far when I didn't fill out the ubiquitous medical manpower survey the state
sends out with its medical license renewal forms and they held up my license
renewal until I did.
Yes. Thanks. No. Sigh...I volunteered to do medical support for Katrina
refugees at a military base close to here when they were going to send 5000
people. Then it was 3000, then it was 500. As it turns out, nobody is coming
to Minnesota from New Orleans. I can't figure out why so many Minnesotans
are surprised at that.... I also volunteered to go to Louisiana to do
coroner stuff (I'm Assistant County Coroner and death investigator here),
but Paul Brown didn't want me either. War on Terror, Katrina, now Rita...I
agree, very frustrating.
But hey!...at least we aren't living and practicing in Canada...
just kidding....really...
HMc
|
|