Editor of Medical Journal Fails to Disclose Ties with Medtronic

I read a recent investigative article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. As a products liability lawyer who has represented numerous clients injured by defective products, this article made my blood boil. Basically, it was about Thomas Zdeblick, a University of Wisconsin orthopedic surgeon who in 2002, took over as editor-in-chief of a medical journal. Between then and now, while he received more than $20 million in patent royalties from medical device maker Medtronic for spinal implants sold by the company, Zdeblick's medical journal published numerous favorable articles involving Medtronic spinal implant products.

Clear Conflict of Interest

The newspaper's investigation shows that the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques published studies involving Medtronic spinal products or those that were funded by the medical device company as often as in each issue. However, the journal did not divulge Zdeblick's relationship with Medtronic. What's even more outrageous is that Zdeblick co-authored some of these articles, which sang praises of the same Medtronic spinal products for which he was receiving millions in royalties.

In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alerted doctors to life-threatening complications that were occurring in patients who got Medtronic's Infuse Bone Graft, which is approved to treat a spinal condition called Degenerative Disc Disease. The FDA warned that Infuse and similar products led to serious problems and personal injuries when they were used off-label in cervical, spine and neck surgeries. Patients reported serious problems such as difficulty swallowing, breathing and even speaking. Last summer, FDA also issued another alert regarding certain Medtronic Kappa and Sigma Pacemakers stating that wiring problems in these defective medical devices could make them potentially lethal to patients.

Editor's Relationship with Company Should Have Been Disclosed

There is no question that there was a conflict of interest here, to say the least. Zdeblick should have, at the least, revealed his ties to the medical device manufacturer every time an article about Medtronic was published in the journal. There have been several cases in the last two years involving doctors who were getting large sums of money from drug companies or medical device manufacturers, but did not inform their patients or the universities they worked for, about their relationships with these companies. This is a disturbing trend, which does nothing but disservice to consumers. While pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers profit from selling their products and editors such as Zdeblick stand to benefit, it is the unsuspecting consumer who gets misled and shortchanged.

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