If you want firsthand evidence of this phenomenon, study the delivery mechanics of the next scientific speaker you listen to.
DT has received sponsorship to attend scientific meetings, speaker honorariums and consultancy fees from Pfizer, speaker honorariums and consultancy fees from Pierre Fabre Santé, speaker honorariums from McNeill and Novartis SF.
HJA has received sponsorship to attend scientific meetings, speaker honorariums and consultancy fees from Pfizer, McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Pierre-Fabre Sante, Sanofi-Aventis, and Merck-Lipha.
GP has received sponsorship to attend scientific meetings, speaker honorariums and consultancy fees from Pfizer, McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Pierre-Fabre Sante, Roche and Sanofi-Aventis ASD has received sponsorship to attend scientific meetings from GlaxoSmithKline, Pierre-Fabre Sante, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, McNeil, Novartis.
Conflict of interest: J.K.: scientific advisor and speaker for Biosense Webster, Boston, Scientific Corp./EP Technologies, GE Healthcare, St Jude Medical, Siemens Healthcare and speaker for Biotronik GmbH, Medtronic.
Ulrich Bogdahn: travel support by Schering-Plough; scientific advisor and speaker for Schering-Plough.
Peter Hau: travel support by Schering-Plough; scientific advisor and speaker for Schering-Plough; several unrestricted educational grants by Schering-Plough.
When I attend national scientific meetings featuring distinguished guest speakers, those speakers almost always deliver well-planned lectures supported by Powerpoint visuals (typically around an hour long), which those in attendance feel privileged to hear and then have the opportunity to interact with questions.
Resolving such issues will require reliable scientific advice, but many speakers argued that paths for scientific input into public policy in Japan are underdeveloped.
As several of the speakers noted, scientific studies in the past few years have proved the value of potentially powerful new prevention tools.
