Surgeons' letter to medical journal silent on their compensation

Doctors who failed to identify a significant cancer risk with a Medtronic spine surgery product in their published research have refused to disclose relevant financial conflicts in a letter about that research to be published Friday in a medical journal. Though it is believed that Medtronic had paid at least three of the doctors more than $20 million, they told the editors of the Spine Journal, which will publish their letter Friday, that they would not reveal how much they had been paid by Medtronic from 2006 to 2009, a time period covering research papers that are the subject of Friday’s letter. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 11/14)