By John Fauber of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: March 14, 2010
This article is part of an ongoing series about how money and conflicts of interest affect medicine and patient care.
When looking for a doctor to travel the country and tout its costly prescription fish oil pill, GlaxoSmithKline didn't select a heavyweight university researcher.
Instead, it wrote checks to Tara Dall, a Delafield primary-care doctor who entered private practice in 2001.
For just three months of speaking engagements last year, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dall $45,000, ranking her among the most highly paid of more than 3,600 doctors nationwide who spoke for the company, which released records for only one quarter of the year.
The practice of doing promotional speaking for drug companies has come under fire in recent years.
