Finder's Fees for Research Subjects

Abstract

At a specialty conference, a postdoctoral fellow describing a new study being conducted at a neighboring institution showed a recruiting letter from the investigator, which outlined the study and noted that a $350 finder's fee would be paid to resident physicians who referred patients who subsequently enrolled in the study. This provoked a few laughs and comments from the audience but seemed an isolated instance to many of us. A few weeks later I learned that investigators at two other local hospitals had proposed offering cash finder's fees to resident physicians in the emergency room for referring patients with specified . . .