"David J. Rothman" is an American author and professor of Social Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He also serves as the President of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession. Rothman's work has focused on the social history of American medicine and current health care practices. His scholarship has also explored human rights in medicine, including organ trafficking, AIDS among Romanian orphans, and the ethics of research in third-world countries.

In 1971, Rothman wrote The Discovery of the Asylum, in which he explored mental hospitals, prisons, and almshouses. The book was co-winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association.

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Drug companies spend $13,000 per physician annually. Those marketing tactics are very, very effective at getting physicians to do what each drug company wants -- to prescribe their product.

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The data are overwhelming. Gifts, travel grants, consulting contracts, support for continuing medical education and speaking fees affect which drugs doctors prescribe for their patients.

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The essence of our proposal is to build a firewall between drug companies and medical practitioners.

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The guidelines that now exist are very weak and operate at the margins. They lack monitoring, and, for the most part, they lack teeth.

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It's one thing if the jeans that you buy have been influenced by gifts that the store buyer received, but it's another if the drugs that the doctor prescribes you have been influenced by a gift.

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The more lucrative the drug market, the higher the percentage of experts with financial ties - that has to raise serious questions about these panels' objectivity.

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