Industry Independent Experts

FAQs

For users of The List. Updated June 2017

How was The List started?

Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee originally compiled The List by combining respected sources they had used over the years during their reporting after growing increasingly concerned about “news” reports that were thinly disguised marketing information promoted by industry and experts – including “academics” tied to industry.  They decided to create The List  as a resource for other journalists as well as agency officials who say they can’t find independent experts to serve on regulatory and guideline panels. Since then, Gary Schwitzer and Adriane Fugh-Berman have joined as List coordinators.

Do you vet the experts on The List for pro- or anti-industry positions?

No. Certain list members have opposing viewpoints on the medical management of certain conditions. The only vetting we do is to ensure that members have recognized expertise in certain areas, and we request financial disclosures regarding work, consultations, teaching, or investments in pharmaceutical and device companies.  We also ask about money for expert legal testimony, or work for insurance companies.  If they have any such ties over the past five years or are planning any ties they have an asterisk after their name.

Why do you have experts who do have some ties to industry on The List?

In light of the overwhelming pro-industry messaging evident in many media reports, we felt it was important to recognize certain individuals who had ties to industry but who “bit the hand that fed them.” These experts were previously listed as “Page 2” experts, and are now simply denoted by an asterisk after their last name and their disclosures are listed in Columns U and V.

Are The List coordinators available for interviews?
Yes.

Jeanne Lenzer, medical investigative journalist, contributor, The BMJ, and author, The Danger Within Us: America’s Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man’s Battle to Survive It.

Gary Schwitzer, Publisher, HealthNewsReview.org, Adjunct Associate Professor in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and former tenured professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota

Shannon Brownlee, M.S., former journalist and current Senior Vice President of the Lown Institute, and author of Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.

Adriane Fugh-Berman, M.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and Director of PharmedOut.

For more information see the original BMJ article on The List >