The Impact of the Pharmaceutical Industry on healthcare

The Drug Industry was front and center in the creation of our health care industry.  The reforms that created modern healthcare in 1911 and beyond were predicated on developing a research infrastructure in medical schools and in the medical community to generate money for industry.  Nothing really has changed.  Now the drug companies have control over federal agencies like the CDC and FDA; over academic research and academic doctors who are paid to conduct research designed by drug companies; over consumer agencies like the American Diabetes Association, Alzheimer's Association, and the American Heart Association; over Congress members from both parties who they pay; and of course over the media where they advertise endlessly  They have taken over the reigns of our clinical protocols and even invent diseases like prediabetes and osteopenia to sell more drugs.  We dissect this situation and talk about solutions.