Pharmaceutical companies pay doctors to promote their products all the time, but until now there's been no way for you to find out who is paying your doctor. Recently a group of investigative journalists created Dollars to Docs, a website where you can plug in your doctor's name and find out if she or he has received any money from one of the top seven pharmaceutical companies over the past several months.

A few caveats: As Scientific American points out in a great article about Dollars to Docs, the data is incomplete. So even if your doctors' names don't pop up, they may still be receiving money from a pharmaceutical company that isn't one of the big seven. And they may also have received a lot more money than the service shows you, because sometimes the data only goes back about six months. In addition, doctors may take money from pharma companies and still not prescribe their drugs.


This is still a useful tool to find out where your doctors' bread is buttered. If you find out they're taking money from a pharma company, just ask them about it. Be sure they're prescribing the best drug for you, and not the name brand.

via Dollars to Docs