Bloomberg recently
announced that the Food & Drug Administration has bestowed its blessing on
a new “gender-specific” knee implant. Manufactured by Smith & Nephew, the new knee is designed to fit the
“unique anatomy” of a female. This is not the first knee- for- women-only. Last
year the FDA approved a similar knee made by Zimmer Holdings, the company that
takes credit for what it describes as a “bespoke knee” for women.

Will the new devices
allow women to function better? "In
theory, yes, but the evidence isn’t there," Kimberly Templeton, an
associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Kansas Medical
Center and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons told U.S. New & World Report. Sheryl Conley, Zimmer’s chief marketing officer explained
seven studies now underway will look at patient satisfaction and range of
motion. Preliminary data will be available in a year or so.

In the meantime, these
couture knees for women are fetching twice as much as the plain-vanilla knees
that, until recently, were used for both men and women. But this is not the
FDA’s concern.

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Gregory—

Sorry I’ve been so slow in responding; I was traveling last
week. I completely agree that doctors should not be making a profit on anemia
injections or cancer drugs that they deliver in their offices. They should, of
course, be paid for their time and the skill involved in administering the
injection or drug. But they should not be making a profit on the product
itself—inevitably that creates a potential conflict of interest (even if it is
subconscious) when a doctor decides what drug to prescribe.

The real problem is that drugmakers are willing to give
doctors discounts which then let doctors bill insurers at the full rate and
pocket the “discount.”In the 19^th century we learned about the problems
associated with letting doctors become pharmacists—it’s ironic that we have to
learn the same lesson all over again.