Even vets need a night out every once in a while. Last week offered one of those. Unfortunately, it coincided with the same day I wrote about (again!) yesterday. So when I got myself showered and smartly dressed for a fancy dinner of CE credit-fueled high attendance, I wasn’t at the top of my game, to say the least. I drove myself to the steak-dinner event, nonetheless, knowing that continuing education is a cornerstone of good medical practice and meeting with vets in my community is essential to my profession’s well being.

This was an event hosted by our South Florida chapter of the AVMA (our national vet professional organization) and sponsored by a drug company to organize the details, source the speaker and make up the difference in the price of the steak, of course. Given the expense of taking forty vets out to dinner, our annual dues couldn’t possibly pay for such extravagance. So having a drug company sponsor the balance isn’t such a bad deal, now, is it?

Normally, I would say, “Nope. It could be worse.” At least the companies tend to bring in high-powered academic speakers who use the products and recommend them, but also have a way of delivering the lecture in a balanced manner. This was no such discussion. It was clear this speaker was dead set on his view of the science involved and wouldn’t consider any other way.

For the record, I’m a big proponent of one of the two products he was marketing, and a big critic of the other. Yet even his delivery of the science behind the former (Adequan) was as unbelievably distorted as to negate any potential support of the other (Derramax). I was floored—and angry.

Now, ordinarily, I don’t get mad in these lectures—I understand the basis behind any drug-sponsored talk. Ultimately, they want to sell me something. But, usually, I learn a little something along the way. Unfortunately, this one was just a sales pitch. Steak dinner or not, my dues were partially involved in paying for this event—and I was receiving academic credit for it, to boot! After the day I’d had, I guess I was feeling a tad intolerant.

To make matters worse, my questions were dismissed with an “I don’t understand whet you’re asking, Doctor.” And my colleagues were uncharacteristically silent. Later, we all agreed that the lecture hadn’t offered much in the way of academic value. At least I wasn’t alone in my oft-voiced opinions.

Sometimes I think I’d rather sit under the fluorescents in a McDonalds than suffer the skewed science of a drug-company sponsored sales pitch under the guise of “continuing education.” The wolf in sheep’s clothing, however, seems to trump all else in its ability to shore up attendance with the prospect of a good steak in a trendy nightspot. Somehow, though, there’s got to be a better way. Perhaps a night out after such a rough day had something to do with my outlook…