Hallelujah! Have a look at the Emperor's new clothes!

Can ANYONE explain to me how a review panel looking over the IDSA
Guidelines is a great "victory"?

How this could possibly be "promising news for patients"?



What if, (and this seems entirely likely to me), thay just have a look
and say,

"Yep. Looks just fine and dandy to me, where do I rubber-stamp this
puppy"?

Wow. Hoo-bleeping-ray for our side. Hey...what happened to the BIG
ANTITRUST deal? No RICO for Kathleen?

Let's put a big, BIG smiley face on this... (and hope no one
notices)...


This sounds like complete and utter bombastic BULL*** PROPAGANDA to
me...(A deliberate distortion of reality to a degree that approaches
outright falsehood)...

Gee, it sort of sounds like we accomplished nothing whatever of any
tangible value...

...but we certainly want YOU to think we did...as the TRUTH tends to
negatively impact our fund-raising activities.



(Hopefully this is just BS spin...it would actually be more worrisome
if they BELIEVE their own CRAP).

=========================================================================
CONTACT: Melissa Chefec, 203-968-6625 or Nicole Rodgers, 202-822-5200,
ext. 249/226

Settlement Announced in Landmark Investigation of Lyme Disease
Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines
Patients’ Rights Groups Applaud Connecticut Attorney General
Blumenthal’s Settlement in Anti-trust Case Against Powerful Medical
Society

Hartford, CT, May 1, 2008 – Patients’ rights groups today hailed
Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal’s announcement of a settlement
in a landmark antitrust investigation into the Lyme treatment
guidelines of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

“My office uncovered undisclosed financial interests held by several
of the most powerful IDSA panelists,” said Blumenthal. “The IDSA’s
guideline panel improperly ignored, or minimized, consideration of
alternative medical opinion and evidence regarding chronic Lyme
disease, potentially raising serious questions about whether the
recommendations reflected all relevant science.”

The groundbreaking settlement announced today forces a complete review
of the IDSA guidelines by a new panel free from conflicts of interest,
specifically excluding previous panel members. This panel will
consider a range of scientific evidence in a public forum broadcast
live over the internet and will be overseen by a specialist in
financial conflicts of interest in medicine.

“This settlement makes it clear that the IDSA guideline development
process was corrupted by a commercially driven panel that excluded
evidence supporting longer term treatment of Lyme disease,” said
attorney Lorraine Johnson, Executive Director of the California Lyme
Disease Association (CALDA). “This settlement allows suppressed
scientific viewpoints and evidence to be heard, and it is promising
news for patients.”

This is the first-ever antitrust investigation against a medical
society’s guidelines development process.

“We congratulate Attorney General Blumenthal for exposing the IDSA’s
conflicts of interest and helping reduce the suffering of Lyme
patients everywhere,” said Pat Smith, president of the national Lyme
Disease Association (LDA). Diane Blanchard, co-president of Time for
Lyme adds, “The IDSA guidelines are dangerous for patients who suffer
longer-term Lyme symptoms that do not fall within the IDSA’s narrow
disease definition.”

The IDSA guidelines are treated as mandatory within the medical
community. More than 50 physicians who use longer-term treatment
approaches have been investigated or sanctioned by state medical
boards. The guidelines can also result in financial problems for
patients, since insurance companies refuse to reimburse for longer-
term treatment and pharmacies may refuse to fill prescriptions.

The majority of individuals involved in the IDSA guidelines
development process held direct or indirect commercial interests
related to Lyme vaccines, patents, and/or test kits, and did not take
the opinions or experiences of the competing Lyme groups into account.
While the announcement of a settlement comes as a huge relief to
suffering Lyme patients, the case has much broader implications for a
health care system that often contends with conflicts-of-interest in
guideline processes – guidelines which are often used by insurance
companies to limit diagnosis and treatment options.

“Today’s settlement marks an important victory for all patients who
suffer Lyme disease, but it is also a victory for anyone concerned
about health care,” said Johnson. “Commercially driven guidelines that
limit patient treatment options are a major issue today in healthcare,
and this decision marks an important step towards addressing it.”

The national Lyme Disease Association, (LDA), CALDA, and Time for Lyme
are non-profit organizations that were founded by individuals who had
personal experience with Lyme disease, in order to address the lack of
education and support services available for this newly emerging
infection.




Last Modified: May 01, 2008
.