When the data were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, Yale cardiologist Harlan Krumholz (now a Forbes contributor) told thousands of heart doctors that Zetia might be just an expensive placebo.

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In a zero hours scenario, if cardiology is having a quiet day, the cardiologist might be asked to spend the day at home, unpaid, watching television or doing the gardening, rather than being paid by his or her NHS Trust for tidying the desk.

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And Vytorin critics, like Steven Nissen, the prominent Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, and Allen Taylor, head of cardiology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, had said it even before the Vytorin news broke.

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