Hey, They're Not All Bad — While researching this issue's cover story on working with CME faculty (see page 38), I heard more than a few horror stories about unethical docs looking for fame and fortune through educational speaking engagements. I shared some of the stories with my husband Bob, who runs the U.S. subsidiary of a Swedish medical device firm. Having been to many medical meetings, he was shocked and appalled at the behind-the-scenes manipulation that occurs.
“What CME needs is more people like Claudia,” he said. At my blank stare, he went on to tell me about Claudia Robertson, MD, a Baylor University department of neurosurgery professor he had contacted to speak at a meeting his company held in Washington, D.C., earlier this summer. Robertson said she'd be glad to come. But when the company offered to pay her an honorarium, she was a little more hesitant. “She initially refused my offer,” he says. “But after a few weeks, she called me back and said that if I really wanted to contribute something that would be meaningful to her, the Ben Taub Hospital in her home town of Houston was trying to raise some funds to buy a new CT scanner. She'd be happy if I would donate the money I would have paid for her honorarium to the hospital's fund instead.”
Now that's a class act.
