Understanding the Sunshine Act—Part One

March 27, 2012 · Leave a comment

Industry Insights from Kristen Smithwick

Albeit a bit late, the U. S.  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule on the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act’s Physician Payments Sunshine Provision (also known as the “Sunshine Act”) to implement it as law.

CMS invited comments on the proposed rule through mid-February 2012, and a recent webcast, sponsored by PharmaLive’s Pharmalot, featured key facts and summaries of comments on the proposed rule. Working for a provider of research and consulting to the biopharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostics industries on relationships with physicians and other health care providers, I enjoyed the opportunity to join the webcast, led by experts from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, P.C., and am eager to share some of my key takeaways.

As mentioned in previous Thought Leader Select Blog posts, the Sunshine Act, as with many laws and regulations, is full of unintended consequences – some positive and some negative. Lance K. Stell, medical ethics teacher at Davidson College and Carolinas Medical Center, reports in his USA Today op-ed piece that the “Sunshine Act will cost far more than the $224 million estimated for just the first year of compliance” and that “the biggest cost will be the valuable, socially useful physician-industry collaborations that simply won’t occur.” Of course, the idea of ... read more »

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Thought Leader Select’s Noureddine Launches Non-Profit Aimed at Career Development for Medical Professionals

December 23, 2010 · Leave a comment

Press Release Out Today from the Offices of Thought Leader Select

December 23, 2010 (CHAPEL HILL, NC)—Dr. Maher “Max” Noureddine, a noted Parkinson’s disease researcher and chief scientific officer at North Carolina-based research firm Thought Leader Select, is leaving the company to launch the Institute for Advanced Career Development (IACD) on January 3, 2011.

The institute will offer an array of programs for medical professionals seeking to advance their academic careers in their respective medical fields.  Programs on offer will include a physician-centric curriculum called MedMentors, courses for nurses called RNMentors, and courses for pharmacists and veterinarians called PharMentors and VetMentors, respectively.

In addition to the programs centered on leadership in allied health professions, Dr. Noureddine will lead development courses for legal professionals interested in understanding the science of DNA-based evidence.  Dr. Noureddine is trained in human molecular genetics with years of laboratory research experience at top institutions such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke Medical Center, and The National Institutes of Health.

“I am excited to take all of my scientific training and combine it with my experience in working directly with leading academic medical specialists from across the globe,” stated Noureddine. “While I am sad to be leaving Thought Leader Select, I am doing so with the company’s complete endorsement—they really believe in what I’m doing to advance scientific careers for better healthcare delivery. ... read more »

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Thought Leader Select’s Meade Receives Master of Public Health Degree, Certificate in Ethics

May 11, 2010 · Leave a comment

May 11, 2010 (CHAPEL HILL, NC)  Paul Meade, founder and president of Thought Leader Select, a North Carolina firm dedicated to key opinion leader (KOL) development solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry, received a master of public health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on May 8, 2010.

The Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC awarded Meade, a 25-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, with a master of public health degree and a certificate in public health ethics in the Public Health Leadership Program.  Meade’s research report, “How Volunteer Community Organizations Can Assist State Public Health Departments During Pandemic Influenza,” explored specific possibilities for the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer non-profit national organization and an auxiliary of the United States Air Force, to assist state public health officials during widespread outbreaks of influenza.

The master of public health degree is Meade’s second master’s degree. He earned a master of science in biomedical science from the University of Guelph (Canada) in 1977, following his bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry from Acadia University (Canada) in 1971.

During his 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Meade served in a variety of leadership positions at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. During his ten years at Merck, Meade worked his way from a sales representative position to director of marketing planning for ... read more »

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