FDA Paying Doctors To Take Part in Survey on DTC Drug Advertising

The FDA will pay doctors up to $100 to take part in a 15-minute telephone survey on direct-to-consumer advertising, the Wall Street Journal reports. The study of some 500 physicians -- half general practitioners, half specialists "in medical conditions that are targeted" by DTC drug advertising -- is part of the agency's current review of drug advertising and should be completed by the spring. According to the Journal, the move raises the question, "Why pay doctors to voice opinions about something critical to their patients' health?" Many doctors already complain "free of charge" that DTC consumer advertising leads patients to ask for "brand-name prescription drugs, even if they aren't the best treatment or a cheaper generic would work equally well." However, the FDA says that doctors might not respond to the survey without financial incentives. Noting that doctors often receive compensation for their opinions from pharmaceutical companies and medical-device makers, as well as "other goodies" from industry sales representatives, the FDA said recently that "[p]hysicians have become accustomed to being compensated with an honorarium for their time spent completing surveys." In addition, doctors are less likely to participate in surveys from the government or for-profit companies than from physician organizations, according to Walter McDonald, CEO of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine. Scott Kellerman, a CDC researcher, said, "There has to be something more than just good will or altruism to get them to sit down and respond," and the Journal reports research has found that "money is, in fact, the best incentive." The exact amount of money the doctors will receive is undecided, but the FDA is conducting a "mini-experiment," giving some physicians $50, some $75 and some $100. If physicians see the incentive as a "straight payment for their time ... it needs to be close to what they actually would get paid for that time," the Journal reports (Adams, Wall Street Journal, 2/15).