Honorary Board of Lyme Disease Association - Conflicts of interest?

Honorary Board of Lyme Disease Association - Conflicts of interest?

Just like with the CALDA, we see on the LDA Advisory Board so-called
LLMDs, people from ILADS, one from IgeneX, and also people who are also
involved with the CALDA.
=====================================
Source: http :// www .lymediseaseassociation.org/WhosWho.html

Honorary Board of Lyme Disease Association, Inc.

Honorary Board of Directors 2007
Click here for bios of our Honorary Board Members
Sarah Brady
Mary McDonnell
Patricia Slaughter
Amy Tan
Rebecca Wells

Board of Directors 2007
Patricia Smith, President
Pam Lampe, Executive VP
Corey Lakin, 2nd VP, Technical Support
Ruth Waddington, RN C, Corresponding Secretary
Mary Ann Richmond, Treasurer
Linda Davis, RHIA, member
Inge Querfeldt, member
Kim Uffleman, LRT, LMT, CMA member
Jeannine Phillips
Joan Wire

Scientific & Professional Advisory Board 2007
CA - Marylynn Barkley, MD, PhD
Endocrinology Researcher, Section of Neurology, Physiology, & Behavior
and Emeritus Professor, University of California, Davis

PA - Manfred Bayer
Senior member Emeritus, Fox Chase Cancer Center; Visiting Associate,
University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering; Director, 2 MB
Biomedical Research, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA

NJ - Robert C. Bransfield, MD
Psychiatrist; Board Member, ILADS; Private Practice, Red Bank, NJ

NY - Robert Dyson, CPA
Director of Quality Control, Friedman, Alpren & Green, LLP, NYC

NY, CT - Brian Fallon, MD
Director, Lyme Disease Research Program, NY State Psychiatric Institute;
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University College
of Physicians & Surgeons; Director, Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases
Research Center, CUMC

CA - Nick Harris, PhD
Immunology Pres., IGeneX Reference Labs; Board of Directors, ILADS;
Board of Directors, CALDA; Diplomate, American Board of Medical
Laboratory Immunology, Palo Alto, CA

CA - Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA
Executive director CALDA, Los Angeles, CA

NY - Kenneth B. Liegner, MD
Internal & Critical Care Medicine, Private Practice, Armonk, NY

NJ - James L. Occi, MS, MA
Corporate Research Microbiologist, NJ

NJ - Dorothy M. Pietrucha, MD
Director, Division of Pediatric Neurology; Medical Director, Child
Evaluation Center, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Neptune, NJ

NJ - Richard Rhee, MD
Neurologist; Clinical Professor of Neurology Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School; Pres., Jersey Shore Neurology Associates; Chairman Board of
Trustees, NJ Chapter American College of Acupuncture, Neptune, NJ

PA - Stephen A. Sheller, Esq.
Sheller, Ludwig & Sheller, Attorneys at Law, Philadelphia, PA

NJ - Alfred C. Tagliabue, MEd Special Education, MEd School Administration
Director of Student Personnel and Community Services, Jackson Schools
(Ret.); Administration Learning Consultant, Calais School, NJ


Last Modified: April 25, 2007

Re: Honorary Board of Lyme Disease Association - Conflicts of interest?

Sewer Rat wrote:
> Just like with the CALDA, we see on the LDA Advisory Board so-called
> LLMDs, people from ILADS, one from IgeneX, and also people who are also
> involved with the CALDA.

The LDA is also affiliated with the Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey
(lymenet.org), their sites even run on the same server. On lymenet.org
your posts can be censored/deleted and you can be banned, when you
criticize "LLMDs", the ILADS, LDA, IgeneX and CALDA. But you seem to be
welcome to make unsupported accusations about the ISDA, IDSA-members,
and other "enemies". You seem to be free to call them criminals,
bioweapon engineers, etc. etc., as people like Lisa and Carla do.

Seems to me some people are biased and lacking objectivity, and applying
double standards. Perhaps this is caused by conflicts of interest.

Re: Honorary Board of Lyme Disease Association - Conflicts of interest?

On May 20, 12:38 pm, Sewer Rat <ratfromthese...@yahoo,com > wrote:

> Just like with the CALDA, we see on the LDA Advisory Board so-called
> LLMDs, people from ILADS, one from IgeneX, and also people who are also
> involved with the CALDA.

If you look at the Exhibit to the Settlement Agreement between the
Conn AG and the IDSA, you will see financial disclosure forms that
prospective panel members will have to complete for conflict analysis
purposes.

One of the questions asks the prospective candidate to estimate the
dollar value attributable to treating Lyme patients in his/her
practice.

This is an important consideration that the patient advocates seem to
be completely ignoring...

...that physicians who see Lyme patients as a majority of their
practice have a very tangible, vested interest in these debates. Their
practices.

I would suggest that the real focus of conflict analysis should be
properly directed at situations where the person is in a decision-
making (voting) capacity and has financail interests of sufficient
weight that the vote could be influenced by those interests.

In other words, you want to look for situations where someone might be
in a position to "vote their wallet".

Now...if you look back at the charges levelled at the IDSA panel...the
obvious problem is that their recommendations are really almost
contrary to any posssible economic benefit to them, personally.



Now...look at the comparable situation with the ILADS Guidelines
process.

Look at the list of panel members.

Notice how many of these, who are physicians... are known to devote a
considerable amount of their practice to the treatment of Lyme
disease.

Now...are these people then, in a position to vote "their wallets"?

Yes. You would think so. By advocating longterm treatment, their
practices stand to benefit substantially.

Seems to be a direct conflict. They benefit directly, it would appear,
from the results of their recommendations.

I would also note that the "working group" lists one Pat Smith...who,
if I am properly informed, suggested that the Attorney General of
Connecticut investigate an entity that had developed similar treatment
Guidelines...and did so on the basis of anti-competitive behavior.

It's simply astonishing.

Re: Honorary Board of Lyme Disease Association - Conflicts of interest?

On May 20, 1:33 pm, the 3rd Man <derdrittemann2...@yahoo,com > wrote:
> Yes. You would think so. By advocating longterm treatment, their
> practices stand to benefit substantially.
>
> Seems to be a direct conflict. They benefit directly, it would appear,
> from the results of their recommendations.


I should add that I do NOT mean to suggest here, that this should
invalidate or even cast doubt upon the validity of the Guidelines
adopted by ILADS...or the IDSA...

...but intend this as an illustration of why this was such a bad
policy, direction, to have started down in the first place.

The problem, of course, that becomes apparent, is that if you go
through such an absolutely sanitizing conflict process, that you will
eventually wind-up excluding the most informed and best opinions...you
are going to exclude the opinions of the research scientists and
practicing physicians with the most experience with the disease...and,
probably, the most insight and the most knowledgable experts.

This kind of nonsense, this back-and-forth, "gotcha' is really, very,
very wasteful and counter-productive to the best interests of patients
and science.