Mmmm ... I think you are being very quick to judge here. The conference is actually being put on by Steve Freed, publisher of diabetesincontrol. Doing it as a cruise is certainly a novel idea. It counts towards the CE requirement, so I suspect it was done this way to attract doctors who are looking for opportunities to get a tax break on the cost of a holiday for themselves
and their partners (2nd passenger free).
Like everyone else, Bernstein sells his services at a market rate. It goes almost without saying that he deserves whatever rewards the market is prepared to give him. If you are looking for free Bernstein info, you will find lots of it on his website, the diabetesincontrol website and the d-solve website. His teleconferences, which are being increasingly attended by medical professionals, are also free.
The man is very generous with his information. In fact I can't think of another opinion leader in the diabetes field who gives as much away. Mainstream doctors at his level speak at conferences and get paid generous fees by the pharmaceutical companies. Bernstein doesn't get invited to do this because he is critical of Big Pharma sponsored mainstream thinking.
The next time you use your blood glucose meter, consider that Bernstein pioneered the concept of home blood-glucose testing. And he didn't get
any financial reward from it at all.
