Doctors in Denial examines the relationship between the Canadian medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry, and explains how doctors have become dependents of the drug companies instead of champions of patients' health. Big Pharma plays a role in every aspect of doctors' work. These giant, wealthy multinationals influence how medical students are trained and receive information, how research is done in hospitals and universities, what is published in leading medical journals, what drugs are approved, and what patients expect when they go into their doctors' offices. But almost all doctors deny the influence and control the drug companies exert. In this book Dr. Lexchin urges the medical profession to make the changes needed to give priority to protecting and promoting patients' health and benefitting society, rather than enabling Big Pharma to dominate health care while raking in billions in profits from citizens and governments.

Joel Lexchin is an internationally-recognized expert in pharmaceutical policy. He received his MD from the University of Toronto in 1977 and has spent over thirty years working as an emergency physician in Hamilton and Toronto. He is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Health Policy and Management at York University where he taught health policy from 2001 to 2016. He has been an advocate for change in pharmaceutical policy for thirty-five years, has appeared before numerous parliamentary committees, and has authored or co-authored over 150 articles about all aspects of how medicines are developed and used. His most recent book Private Profits versus Public Policy: The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Canadian State was published in early 2016.

Joel Lexchin's profile page

BRIAN GOLDMAN is an emergency physician at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital and the host of CBC Radio's award-winning program White Coat, Black Art. His inspiring yet bracingly honest TEDx talk about medical errors—which has been viewed on the Internet almost one million times—has cemented his reputation as one of his generation's keenest observers of the culture of modern medicine. The author of the acclaimed book The Night Shift, Dr. Goldman lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

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"...a book dense with statistics, research, and anecdotal examples...Lexchin (is) required reading."

Literary Review of Canada