BMJ  2008;336 (21 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a413

Editor's Choice

Key opinion leaders, your time is up

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We’re lucky in medicine to have an unending supply of mysteries to ponder. Some of these—like why vitamin A supplementation benefits some children while harming others—are amenable to scientific research (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39575.486609.80;doi: 10.1136/bmj.39542.509444.AE). But there are mysteries of a different sort, ones that are in our power as a profession to resolve. Why, for example, is it considered normal for medical leaders to accept personal payment for promoting a company’s drug or device?

This week Ray Moynihan asks whether paid "key opinion leaders" can be independent or are just drug representatives in disguise (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39575.675787.651). His interview with former sales representative Kimberly Elliott suggests the latter. We know from independent studies that paid opinion leaders can increase use of a target drug or device. Even if we didn’t know this, we would have to assume it from industry’s continued funding of "KOLs." Speakers who don’t make enough . . . [Full text of this article]

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