Orthopedic products maker's relationship with surgeons questioned

Orthopedic product maker Synthes Inc. handpicked surgeons and paid for the doctors' travel to training sessions where company employees explained how to use their new bone-mending cement to fix a type of spinal fracture that afflicts hundreds of thousands of people yearly, most of them elderly. Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment of the company that these training sessions were a dangerous, illegal, and less expensive substitute for clinical trials required by the Food and Drug Administration. Synthes has said it acted properly and will defend itself against the charges.