A year ago, I received an E-mail from a research scientist at a major pharmaceutical company. The scientist had read my articles on whistleblowers who had raised concerns about the undue infl uence of the pharmaceutical industry on American medicine My industry source had information for me about drug company practices, but—out of fear of career ruin—would only talk on the condition that I woul...

T he term whistleblower comes from the phrase ‘‘blow the whistle’’, which refers to a whistle being blown by a policeman or a referee to indicate an activity that is illegal or a foul [1]. Recently, whistleblowers have disseminated valuable information to the community through new media outlets, such as WikiLeaks. In medicine, whistleblowers serve to shed light on side-effects of drugs and, occ...

Medicine has shed many of its privileges. Some remain and are unlikely to disappear. Knowing which of our colleagues to consult when illness strikes is priceless, if only because we can avoid a colleague who we know poses a risk to patients. This sacred knowledge is guarded by hushed whispers and nods and winks. Medical students know the repute of their teachers; junior doctors share horror sto...

Boumil et al praise the False Claims Act (1863, United States). I wish there were a similar act in France; instead French law makes whistleblowing an offense. This does not encourage whistleblowers. In France whistleblowers are never ‘rewarded for their efforts with monetary compensation and protection from retaliation’. Nor are they in many other European jurisdictions. In fact, the highest ad...

Editorial Open access, freely available online O n May 15, 2005, the Public Library of Science and the Government Accountability Project, a public interest legal group that advises and supports whistleblowers (www.whistleblower. org), co-sponsored a private meeting near the Capitol Building in Washington, D. C. In the room were four of the most high profi le medical whistleblowers of recent tim...