Everyone read this = EYE OPENING!

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Anonymous

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Those of us who work in the medical field, regardless of occupation, know the demands placed on physicians time. Below is a link to a twitter exchange from 2 highly regarded physicians. These 2 busy doctors have taken the time to look at CafePharma and read the ZOLL LifeVest threads! Needless to say, they found what they read VERY amusing!

https://twitter.com/drjohnm/status/448184677510045696

Further expanding the twitter conversation sees other physicians join in over, what turned out to be, multiple days. It goes without saying that none of the views were positive. Ladies/gentlemen/current employees/prospective employees, this is what many physicians think of the LifeVest. If your are blind enough to believe your "fluff" marketing pieces, seatbelt analogies, leaning on other (non-LifeVest) studies, etc... can overcome this, you are a fool!
 






Remember the marketing response by JW/BK regarding Dr. Mandrola's original post (?). The post called out every point that has been highlighted on this site et. al suggesting the Lifevest is a waste. Instead of taking the highroad and responding to Dr. Mandrola with a well written letter either defending the vest or better yet asking for a meeting or an evidence based panel debate to clear the air, a dismissive arrogant letter was sent out to the company. The letter attempted to marginalize Dr. Mandrola as an "inexperienced newbie" in EP with an "industry ax to grind" who didn't "understand the data and implications" and never prescribed a vest. The email was childish at best. Face it we went from being somewhere in medical sales to selling mops or ginzus at a carnival. I know a lot of people very embarrassed by this email. The sad part is its the TMs that get career tarnished NOT marketing or executives. I frankly hope that something big happens to force the hand of the company to respond (e.g. OIG investigation into referrals, ACC/HRS open letter of response, medicare cut/AICD indication change). Kudos to you Dr. Mandrola we in the field support your efforts to get answers we have been trying for internally for years.
 






Anonymous said:
Remember the marketing response by JW/BK regarding Dr. Mandrola's original post (?). The post called out every point that has been highlighted on this site et. al suggesting the Lifevest is a waste. Instead of taking the highroad and responding to Dr. Mandrola with a well written letter either defending the vest or better yet asking for a meeting or an evidence based panel debate to clear the air, a dismissive arrogant letter was sent out to the company. The letter attempted to marginalize Dr. Mandrola as an "inexperienced newbie" in EP with an "industry ax to grind" who didn't "understand the data and implications" and never prescribed a vest. The email was childish at best. Face it we went from being somewhere in medical sales to selling mops or ginzus at a carnival. I know a lot of people very embarrassed by this email. The sad part is its the TMs that get career tarnished NOT marketing or executives. I frankly hope that something big happens to force the hand of the company to respond (e.g. OIG investigation into referrals, ACC/HRS open letter of response, medicare cut/AICD indication change). Kudos to you Dr. Mandrola we in the field support your efforts to get answers we have been trying for internally for years.
Click to expand...

Yeah...the DELAYED "response" by BK was a joke! 3 or 4 doctors blindsided me with the Mandrola piece over a number of days before BK typed up the "take my ball and go home" because Dr. Mandrola is a jerk email!

In the email he pointed out that Dr. Mandrola has only written 1 LifeVest. Uh...yeah genius, because of the reasons in the article he wrote!!!
 






BK's pathetic response to the original article by Dr. Mandrola (note the final "article" he references is written by JW and MS from ZOLL):

"Finally, Dr. John Mandrola (Louisville, KY), authored an editorial (link here) published on theheart.org Heartwire titled, “LifeVest: A Precarious and Unproven Bridge…to Somewhere.” The editorial is an example of a common conundrum verbalized by our customers, the need for overwhelming scientific evidence contrasted with the need to protect patients they know are at risk of SCA. Dr. Mandrola argues that the lack of randomized controlled trials makes the LifeVest an unproven technology, but conversely acknowledges that “there are patients at risk of sudden death in whom a permanent ICD cannot be used.”

It is important to put this editorial in the proper context:
· The editorial reflects the opinion of one physician with extremely limited LifeVest experience (One medical order in 2008).
· Dr. Mandrola’s puts significant effort into sensationalized language to attract readership and prompt comments on his blog—this is what he gets paid to do, just like any editorial page. Do not let customers get caught up in the language and confuse it with the message--“there are patients at risk of sudden death in whom a permanent ICD cannot be used.”
· There is an extensive amount of data, much of which comes from randomized trials, supporting the risk of SCA in high risk patients. Importantly, the LifeVest has been shown to be an effective therapy for prevention of SCD.
o Data regarding the effectiveness of the LifeVest has been published in countless peer-reviewed journals and ZOLL continues to pursue new data to support the use of the LifeVest.
· Dr. Mandrola’s points about LifeVest impact on quality of life does not include already-published data relative to the health and lifestyle benefits of the LifeVest and is likely a result of having no experience with the device. The article, “Health and Lifestyle Benefits Resulting from Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator Use” was published in the Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management in February 2012 and shows that patients and family members are comforted by use of the LV and can sleep for the first time in months knowing they are protected."
 












OMG, I forgot that QOL piece and who wrote it....JW/MS from marketing. That guy is on a serious power trip publishing a paper and wanting us to use it. If I remember the spin correctly, just over half of the patients actually wore the device during the wait period, the actually time in vest (hrs/day) was never published and it was all warm and fuzzy questions without comparisons (how scared are you of getting shocked, do you physically sleep well at night or do the alarms keep you up, do the bills give you chest pain, would you be happier without the device). So wonderful, MD writes for a vest out of "concerns", only half will wear it and you don't know when or for how long, it costs a lot and scares the bejesus out of everyone. Do no harm..Socrates! This article is BS, wait for the VEST results to come out. They actually stated at an investigators meeting "patients tended to psyco/socially portend to statistically poorer outcomes wearing the LV". The company response was to CUT customer service, guess you can't measure what you do not document or service eh JW, you opaque dork.
 






Anonymous said:
OMG, I forgot that QOL piece and who wrote it....JW/MS from marketing. That guy is on a serious power trip publishing a paper and wanting us to use it. If I remember the spin correctly, just over half of the patients actually wore the device during the wait period, the actually time in vest (hrs/day) was never published and it was all warm and fuzzy questions without comparisons (how scared are you of getting shocked, do you physically sleep well at night or do the alarms keep you up, do the bills give you chest pain, would you be happier without the device). So wonderful, MD writes for a vest out of "concerns", only half will wear it and you don't know when or for how long, it costs a lot and scares the bejesus out of everyone. Do no harm..Socrates! This article is BS, wait for the VEST results to come out. They actually stated at an investigators meeting "patients tended to psyco/socially portend to statistically poorer outcomes wearing the LV". The company response was to CUT customer service, guess you can't measure what you do not document or service eh JW, you opaque dork.
Click to expand...

Given ZOLL's new trend towards hiring mouthpieces for the company (AKA pharma reps), that article by JW is PERFECT (as are all the other analogies and study correlations used)! Drug reps are used to blindly spreading the marketing department's message without question or thought! Disseminating it in the field will have a certain amount of effectiveness, and that is what ZOLL is counting on! Some physicians will take a quick glance at it or not read the disclosures (JW & MS are employed by ZOLL).

Regarding the VEST trial, isn't it interesting that the date of Fall 2015 has now been stretched to Fall of 2016 "at the earliest"??? Self important JW must not like the preliminary data, because if he (they) did there would be an interim publication for sure!

Finally, isn't this statement:

"patients tended to psyco/socially portend to statistically poorer outcomes wearing the LV".

EXACTLY what ZOLL is hoping for???
 












Anonymous said:
OMG, I forgot that QOL piece and who wrote it....JW/MS from marketing. That guy is on a serious power trip publishing a paper and wanting us to use it. If I remember the spin correctly, just over half of the patients actually wore the device during the wait period, the actually time in vest (hrs/day) was never published and it was all warm and fuzzy questions without comparisons (how scared are you of getting shocked, do you physically sleep well at night or do the alarms keep you up, do the bills give you chest pain, would you be happier without the device). So wonderful, MD writes for a vest out of "concerns", only half will wear it and you don't know when or for how long, it costs a lot and scares the bejesus out of everyone. Do no harm..Socrates! This article is BS, wait for the VEST results to come out. They actually stated at an investigators meeting "patients tended to psyco/socially portend to statistically poorer outcomes wearing the LV". The company response was to CUT customer service, guess you can't measure what you do not document or service eh JW, you opaque dork.
Click to expand...

JW is a complete idiot. No stupid action of his surprises me.

ML is obviously clueless, another miss.

This "company" would be funny if only it didn't rotate employees with false promises and over rent a product to customers at 10X the price. Where is the ethics here?

These guys are the smartest guys in the room ala Enron.
 






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