Our program for SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15 will be a talk by Dr, Jerome Kassirer, author of On the Take: Medicine’s Complicity with Big Business Can Harm Your Health [ Google Books ]. He will examine the current issues of the intrusion of economics into medicine. Dr. Kassirer is presently the Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Tufts University Medical School and Visiting Professor at Stanford School of Medicine; he lives in Boston. He was the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine from 1991-1999. Last May he received the Humanist of the Year Award from the Ethical Society of Boston. He reported how drug companies have corrupted doctors by paying them to serve on research committees thus biasing their findings for personal gain.

Here is an example of the favorable reviews:

“His book is a call to the physicians today to resist the insidious effects of subtle and not-so-subtle conflicts of interest in accepting funding from the pharmaceutical industry. Scores of examples are documented of greed, venality, laziness and ignorance which have led physicians and professional organizations to compromise their integrity in the quest for financial support…..The book is a must-read for physicians of conscience and a warning to consumers to be careful where they place their trust.” Charles I. Campbell, former executive in the American Heart Association of New York.

Dr. Kassirer will speak at 1:30 pm Feb. 15. Free parking is available in the Littauer Lot adjacent to the Science Center, (enter at the Dworkin Building on Oxford.) The location of this event is new for us, the Yenching Institute’s Auditorium, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge [ Google Maps ]. To orient you, think of the Oxford St. entrance of the Science Center, where Kirkland St. begins. Walk one block on Kirkland and the first street on your left is Divinity Ave., immediately after the traffic light. Turn onto Divinity and the Yenching Library is the first building on your right. Call the editor for more information, (617) 547-1497.

UPDATE: Permission has been given to use the Yenching parking lot through the afternoon. The lot is located right there behind the Institute.