Peter Rost for FDA Commissioner – Read up and see what you think

Well, this goes back to a post I made a while back about the two hottest trends in health care, in this case we can focus on the whistleblower side of things, but not lose sight of the fact that the algorithms control everything, data, Congress, the pills we take, you name it. Pfizer might be a bit worried if he were designated, but with transparency today, there’s no hiding anything so by today’s rules you have to play fair, those algorithms make it so.

The 2 New Hot Words in Healthcare: Algorithms and Whistleblowers

Nothing can be worse than the lack of transparency we have had for the last number of years and the FDA sitting on their hands when it came to technology, but perhaps not their fault entirely as the leader was not a technical person and for that matter neither are the folks who sit in Congress for the most part, so how was anything going to get done? Well what you see is what we got.

The Boston Globe also has an article about the need for a strong FDA leader. You can visit his website for additional information about his background and see what you think.

The big thing needed now and the FDA is taking action is to increase their Business Intelligence, and this last year has been more than one big embarrassment in this area, but it all falls under the leader of the ship and if you have a technologically challenged person at the top of the helm without some first hand technology experience, then every one else suffers. I have posted numerous times on this subject and the FDA as well as other government agencies, as well as Congress are now caught up in the nasty but needed game of catch up and you can’t help but notice it, I just write about it, the only difference here. Some studies as reported earlier this year were still be written up in longhand, on paper, so that just goes to show how a strong technical leader is needed and drug companies invest heavily in technology. The folks with the technology, data bases and tools to mine it have the power, as we have all seen of late.

Here’s a screenshot from the poll conducted at his website, looks good in the popularity department, but we will all just have to wait and see, in the meantime you can visit the site and read up. Again, I just hope to see some tech people in high offices as we need to have officials that have some “hands on” experience instead of having to rely on the costly time it takes for staff to educate and bring them up to par on what’s happening, and then hope that our leaders understand it and can make decisions, just nice to have folks who get it first hand and have the “hands on “ approach and knowledge, and also not have to worry about what gets lost in the translation, we have had a full blown number of years of that with both Pharma and Health insurance added to that pot, as they and Wall Street have been the kings of algorithms that rule all economic and monetary decisions that either give or take away the quality of life we would all like to enjoy and see once more in this country. BD

If Pfizer Inc. were to describe its worst nightmare, it might very well be seeing former company whistleblower Peter Rost become commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So guess who is actively seeking the FDA's top post? Peter Rost, a former Pfizer vice president who turned whistleblower after he alleged that a subsidiary of the company started promoting off-label uses of various drugs, not only is in the running for FDA commissioner, but he has at least two congressmen in his corner.

Pfizer fired Rost in 2005 after it became known that the marketing executive's allegations about off-label promotion of drugs had led to a criminal investigation against the company.
Rost went on to write a bestseller about his experiences, titled “The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman,” which detailed payouts to doctors, marketing drugs to children and various illegal and unethical activities he said he witnessed.