ITA Update: Doctors For Hire Find Themselves In Hot Water

Doctors For Hire Find Themselves In Hot Water

The Indoor Tanning Association highlighted a recent scandal involving the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) as part of its continued efforts to promote moderate exposure to UV light and expose the "sun-scare industry’s" hypocrisy.

On Feb. 4, the ITA exposed the dermatology and sunscreen industry’s most recent attempt to unnecessarily prevent people from exposing themselves to UV light, which is a major contributing factor to the growing vitamin D deficiency epidemic in the United States.

The ITA drew attention to a group of prominent dermatologists, including Bernard Ackerman, M.D., director emeritus of the Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology in New York City, who criticized the AAD for colluding with the sunscreen industry in its "Seal of Recognition" program.

This pay-for-play practice charges companies thousands of dollars for the simple privilege of displaying the academy’s logo on sun-protection products. A similar scandal occurred in 1998, when the American Medical Association became embroiled in controversy for giving a seal of approval to the Sunbeam Corporation in exchange for financial compensation.

In the current controversy, companies paid a $10,000 per product fee to apply for the AAD logo, as well as an additional $10,000 annual per product fee to use it.

Ackerman’s group circulated a petition among AAD members, which created enough public pressure to force the AAD to hold a special session during its annual meeting to discuss the issue. The Dermatology Times covered the scandal and quoted Dr. Ackerman as saying he was "revolted by the program" and that "patients should never be used as a vehicle for self-aggrandizement by either an individual physician or an association of physicians."

Another dermatologist, Peter C. Lombardo, M.D., had a similar critique of his peers. He also pointed out that the AAD doesn’t have any sort of independent testing organization that compares one product against another, completely negating any validity the "Seal of Recognition" might purport to have. 

The ITA will continue to publicize this scandal, which underscores the unethical relationships between the dermatology community and the skincare industry. Since the AAD didn’t learn its lesson from the embarrassing AMA scandal, it is going to be our industry’s job to teach them.

When medical groups engage in pay-for-play, it negates whatever credibility they had in the first place. And when it comes to botulism-injecting dermatologists, their credibility was pretty tenuous to begin with.