The Ethical Barometer

Making a change that The Barometer has asked of docs and pharmas for over a decade, the Cleveland Clinic will require its 1,800 staff doctors and scientists to disclose to patients their financial relationships with pharmas and medical device manufacturers.  With Senator Charles Grassley breathing down their necks, the medical centers, docs, and pharmas are seizing the moment and staying the inexorable march of the regulatory cycle.  They are doing what should be done with conflicts of interest:  Either don’t do it or disclose.  Whether because of the handwriting on the wall or the brazen activities of docs reported over the past few months, the folks at Cleveland have opted for disclosure and The Barometer applauds. There are still naysayers.  One doc called the scrutiny excessive and complained, “You can’t get a coffee mug from a drug company.”  Sure you can — just drink the coffee from the mug in front of your patients!

The fine bi-annual survey of the Josephson Institute on youth character is now available at www.josephsoninstitute.org. Conducted every other year since 1992, the survey of 30,000 high school students at 100 schools nationwide, grades 9-12, reveals that 64% have cheated on a test at least once, 82% have copied others’ homework, and 42% have lied to save money.  Good news, however, the self-esteem emphasis with these trophy kids is working: 77% of them are still satisfied with their character and ethics.  Finally, 82% reveal that they have lied to their parents at least once. This last figure is the only piece of the data that the Barometer questions.  Having raised four children, the Barometer knows the figure to be 100%.  But, the study is still not flawed because 26% of the kids disclosed that they had not answered all of the questions honestly.

That students cheat and do so at high levels is no longer news.  The Barometer worries . . . Continue reading →

J.P. Hayes was playing the Q school (for you non-golfers (and the Barometer is in that crowd), that’s pro golf’s qualifying school, a series of games in which players compete for the top 25 slots, a position that allows them to enter most PGA tournaments without qualifying).  While playing one of the Q school rounds at Houston’s Deerwood Country Club in mid-November 2008, Hayes chipped his ball onto the green and placed a marker.  After finishing the hole, he realized that he had used a different ball.  He called himself on it, and he took a two-stroke penalty.  Oh, but there’s more. Later Mr. Hayes realized that the ball he had used was not one that was PGA-approved.  He had some Titlelist prototypes in his bag that he had been testing for the company.  He had used a newfangled, unapproved ball. To call or not to call PGA officials?  Disqualification vs. six-figures in earnings several times over? Continue reading →