Shill for Cyberknife? I Don't Think So

This morning I received an e-mail from a PR person, Sherry Feldberg, who works for Accuray, the company that makes cyberknife. (They write it "CyberKnife.")

She said she'd love to speak with me about cyberknife so that I can help her with her campaign to get into new media. 

This is what she wrote:

"From your post, I realize you have not yet had CyberKnife, but I'd still love to speak with you. As you're keeping a blog, you're clearly savvy when it comes to using new media which is a growing target for our awareness campaign. We have a CyberKnife Facebook fan page (you should join!), Twitter handle and one of our goals for the upcoming year is to monitor chat rooms in which cancer/CyberKnife is being discussed so that we can alert patients of the opportunity to share their story with these interested audiences."

So she wants me to jump in when people are talking about cyberknife and talk it up? And is she going to pay me to do this? And would other people on these discussion boards and so on know that the patient who is chiming in was ASKED by the company to do so, whether paid or not?

Clearly not my kind of thing. But we all need to beware of the source of all info we read on the Web. Many special interests are out there, disguised as ordinary people.

A footnote: It turns out that the folks who will be treating me at Swedish have a Web page (Of course, they do):

Cyberknife at Swedish

And here's my doctor, Dr. Lee the Second: 

Brian Lee, M.D., Ph.D.

You'll note that his credentials are much stronger than those of the doctor I refused to let treat me with gammaknife. She is in the same practice, turns out, although usually based at Northwest Hospital. 

Dr. Sandra Vermeulen

And of course I didn't like her or her condescending, railroading style. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Comments

[Linda]

I like to think of myself as hardened and cynical, but this still shocked me. "Alerting" patients to the "opportunity" to talk up a particular technology or medication? Wow. Thanks for the reminder that posts on cancer discussion boards and the like - as great and helpful as they can be - are not always spontaneous. And thanks for keeping *this* blog free of such conflicts.

(I'm snickering at the thought of a cyberknife fan page. I think I'll duck over to Facebook to see how many fans taxotere has.)

[Joana Ramos]

Wow! This really takes the cake, but does not surprise me. The relatively new marketing specialty field of
"online patient acquisition" has no shame and little scruples. We must constantly stay on top of these trends, and help educate others about what is really going on.

Take good care, and good luck with cyberknife.

[jeanne Sather]

The PR person for cyberknife saw my post and e-mailed me again. She apologized for offending me, but that's not really the point.

Here's what she said:

"I saw your post today and am truly sorry you were offended by my outreach; please understand that was not my intention.

"To be clear, the patients we work with are strictly volunteers: Accuray does not compensate patients who share their treatment experiences with the media and/or other patients. Our goal is to make patients aware of media opportunities in which it might be relevant to discuss their experiences with CyberKnife. It is entirely up to them to participate, or not."

[Joana Ramos]

Hi Jeanne and all,

While I'm glad to learn that Ms. Feldberg sent you a personal apology, her qualification to it shows that she just doesn't get what's wrong with this kind of unethical behavior. In other words,it's a values issue: our personal misfortunes should not be regarded as business opportunities!! One wonders if she's being paid on a per capita or salary basis for every new person she recruits as a volunteer for Cyberknife testimonials. The old term "ambulance chaser" comes to mind, although it originally was applied only to opportunistic lawyers. This is at the root of course of the our bigger struggle to achieve humane and genuine healthcare reform in this country. I'll be writing abut this issue in my blog which will be launched soon, so stay tuned. 'Nuff said for now.

I also want to let folks know that there is still time to send on your thoughts and comments to the FDA about use of social media by drug and medical device companies, etc. You likely know that they held a hearing on this topic back in November. Here is the link for chiming in: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CDER/ucm184250.htm

I've let them know that solicitation of patients for company testimonials need to be added to list of practices that should be banned, along with direct-to-consumer, and direct-to-patient advertising done via all methods, including by social media. Approaching someone via their website or blog falls into this category.

Best wishes for a peaceful and healthy new year,

Joana
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