Stuart Pfeifer

Lap-Band Billboards Finally Catch FDA's Attention

The FDA finally cracked down on billboard marketing campaigns that portray Lap-Band surgery as risk-free. Two reporters and a public health official from Los Angeles deserve some of the credit for the FDA's move.

Slap: Lap-Band Doctors Paint Newspaper Reporters as Gangsters

The doctors behind the "Diets Fail!" campaign to get people to undergo Lap-Band surgery have innovated again. Failing to win a libel case against the newspaper that exposed their shady business practices, they are attempting to persuade a judge to treat newspaper reporters like the Mafia.

Joplin Hospital: ER Doctor Revisits Tornado's Toll

Recounting a tornado's path through Joplin's hospital, hospitals sanctioned in California, and seniors loading up on caffeinated energy drinks, plus more from our Daily Briefing.

Medical Board of California, go public with your pain

Should the California Medical Board make a public case for more money? Yes, William Heisel says, noting that it costs doctors more to protect the few bad doctors in their midst from punishment than it does to help maintain the state’s system of medical rules and guidelines.

Allergan helps questionable weight loss clinics go fishing for Lap-Band patients

Allergan, the maker of the Lap-Band surgical device, likes to say that it puts patient safety first.

Undoubtedly, it does not want patients to have a bad outcome. More injuries and deaths from Lap-Band surgeries – especially at a time when the company is seeking FDA approval to expand the use of the devices – could derail a very successful sales record.

Yet many of the clinics and doctors being promoted as Lap-Band surgeons on the company’s own website have a series of problems that should give patients pause.

Controversy comes at a bad time for Lap-Band maker looking to expand market

So many doctors have been trying to lure people to get Lap-Band surgery, with deadly consequences, that the maker of the Lap-Band surgical device, Allergan, has finally been forced to speak up.

Stuart Pfeifer at the Los Angeles Times recently asked Allergan CEO David E.I. Pyott about the sleazy 1-800-GET-THIN campaign:

Irresponsible marketing for Lap-Bands may have deadly consequences

Lose Weight Billboard The consequences can be severe when clinics lure patients by setting up “1-800” numbers and offering free seminars seven days a week to extol the virtues of Lap-Band surgery, all while telling patients that “Dieting Sucks” or “Diets Fail.”

Let Them Eat Cake: Weight-loss doctors push Lap-Band surgery risk-free

When I wrote about the “Dieting Sucks” campaign two years ago, I predicted that similarly unscrupulous plastic surgeons would join the race to the bottom. They did.

Lap-Band Billboards Finally Catch FDA's Attention

Slap: Lap-Band Doctors Paint Newspaper Reporters as Gangsters

Joplin Hospital: ER Doctor Revisits Tornado's Toll

Medical Board of California, go public with your pain

Allergan helps questionable weight loss clinics go fishing for Lap-Band patients

Controversy comes at a bad time for Lap-Band maker looking to expand market

Irresponsible marketing for Lap-Bands may have deadly consequences

Let Them Eat Cake: Weight-loss doctors push Lap-Band surgery risk-free

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