Medtronic Reviews Its Policy, Researcher Resigns Position

As Medtronic continues to review its relationships with consulting physicians, an orthopedic researcher accused of failure to disclose that the company had paid for his trip to testify before a Senate subcommittee has resigned from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ (AAOS) board of directors. “Recent media attention concerning my consulting activities has become an unnecessary distraction,” David Polly said in an Aug. 19 letter to AAOS President Joseph Zuckerman. Polly, principal investigator in a Defense Department project involving Medtronic’s bone morphogenic proteins, is being investigated by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Device and Diagnostics Letter