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Fri 27 Apr, 2007 10:04 am
Despite the potential for conflict of interest, virtually all practicing physicians in the U.S. have some form of relationship with pharmaceutical manufacturers but the nature and extent of those relationships vary, depending on the kind of practice, medical specialty, patient mix, and professional activities, reports a study in the April 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Survey in The New England Journal of Medicine - Abstract
This one really burns my ass.
For some ridiculous reason, doctors are the only clients that cannot be taken out by companies who want their business. Somehow it's alright that hospitals treat medicine like a business. Somehow it's alright that insurance companies treat medicine like a business. But when drug companies do the same thing, it's seen as unacceptable.
When new drugs come out, after you're done with medical school and residency, the companies are some of the best places to get information about the drug. Yes, they stand to gain financially from doctor's prescribing habits... but what if they actually have an incredible product that will benefit patients and they want to educate doctors about it?
Doctors (well, most of them) are not stupid. They know how to look at data and determine if they are valid or not. I have all kinds of drug reps that come in who try to sell me on the virtues of their drug, but I'm still not convinced because I can tell the difference between B.S. and the real deal.
My friends that work for Maxim magazine go out for $1,000 sushi lunches (complete with alcohol) on the tab of companies wanting to advertise. I get... what.... dry deli sandwiches from HyVee?? And people are still complaining about all this sh*t we are supposedly getting. When you look at what a doctor's time is actually worth per hour, they SHOULD be giving us significantly more than they do. It is ridiculous.
But, there was such a public outcry when I could go to a Cardinals baseball game on a drug company's tab, that limitations were placed on how much a company could spend on a doctor's time, for fear that American health was at risk. Now where did that leave us?
Instead of taking me to a $50 baseball game, they spend $50 million on commercials for Levitra during the SuperBowl.
Good job, guys.
I don't think selling ads is quite the same callibur as selling drugs. Doctor's are supposed to be treating patients with the right drugs, not the drugs that paid for last nights dinner and ballgame. This is not to say that all doctors are unethical. But, the opportunity for an opinion to be swayed in such a way as to affect a patient's health is one that should be as limited as possible.
You know what has a LOT more influence over what doctor's prescribe?
The "preferred drug" lists that the insurance companies generate.
Do you have any.. ANY idea how those lists are generated?
By a ton of money being spent on the CEOs of the insurance companies.
I try to prescribe drugs that I feel are the best for the patients, and what do we doctors get?
A massive stack of "request denieds" or "prior authorization needed" paperwork.
Why is do I not read articles about peoples' outrate in regards to THAT?
Oh, don't get me started on the medical insurance machine!
There's no outrage becuase people are ignorant of that process.
littlek wrote:Oh, don't get me started on the medical insurance machine!
There's no outrage becuase people are ignorant of that process.
That's just my point. The insurance company's dictation of what doctors can and cannot prescribe is a problem many-fold more critical to be addressed than whether or not a drug company can take me out for a burger or a steak.
They're both important. Why do you think the public is unaware of the red tape you face?
littlek wrote:They're both important. Why do you think the public is unaware of the red tape you face?
Because healthcare is in the news daily. I read the New York Times, Wallstreet Journal, USA Today, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch almost every day.
All I ever read about is the limitation of drug rep's exposure to physicians. Never something along the lines of "Exotic Trips/Dinners Responsible for Drug X Being Preferred on Blue Cross!!"
If I've missed something, please forward it to me!
I doubt you've missed something. What would happen if doctors themselves wrote articles about the drug range limitations?
I've been out of the med world for decades, but remember being "romanced" by various reps for various conjugated antiglobulins... to use in our labs, back when I had one or two labs. I say I, not to be obnoxious, but that was how it went day to day, both of those labs being observed by an m.d. with varied often-ness.
I was only a tech, nice enough education, forming starter labs, research labs under the agis of a university department and various professors; we found interesting things from time to time.
Way back then, the pharmaceutical companies didn't have all that much sway.
Decades later, I got into landscape architecture, now one of the "professionals", and we had all these, er, buffoons wanting to bring us subway sandwich lunches so we would listen to their spiels. By then I was inured, and would never partake of the repast. You can't buy me with a salami!!!!
(Not with the Mariscos truck down the street.)
Just give me the data.
I apologize, as sales people are not equated with buffoonery, but, my eyes are open. I'd so much rather have a short meeting about the real info on whatever product line.
stlstrike3 wrote:littlek wrote:Oh, don't get me started on the medical insurance machine!
There's no outrage becuase people are ignorant of that process.
That's just my point. The insurance company's dictation of what doctors can and cannot prescribe is a problem many-fold more critical to be addressed than whether or not a drug company can take me out for a burger or a steak.
That makes sense to me as a gripe, with all that is behind that circumstance.
Quote:virtually all practicing physicians in the U.S. have some form of relationship with pharmaceutical manufacturers
In a large practice ( HMO, for example ), the drug reps make it a point of visiting MDs to discuss new products, etc. A major source of info for the MDs however, is the PharmD usually on staff. While the latter does not interact directly with the sales rep, they do know about new medications, their uses and their adverse side effects.
I should also add that many PhD scientists who work in cancer pharmacology also receive tasty lunches and other "gifts" from the pharmaceutical companies, especially if their research is cancer related and performed in a major cancer research center .
Miller wrote:Quote:virtually all practicing physicians in the U.S. have some form of relationship with pharmaceutical manufacturers
In a large practice ( HMO, for example ), the drug reps make it a point of visiting MDs to discuss new products, etc. A major source of info for the MDs however, is the PharmD usually on staff. While the latter does not interact directly with the sales rep, they do know about new medications, their uses and their adverse side effects.
I should also add that many PhD scientists who work in cancer pharmacology also receive tasty lunches and other "gifts" from the pharmaceutical companies, especially if their research is cancer related and performed in a major cancer research center .
PharmD's are awesome.
Sadly, there are none at my private hospital.
stlstrike3 wrote:Miller wrote:Quote:virtually all practicing physicians in the U.S. have some form of relationship with pharmaceutical manufacturers
In a large practice ( HMO, for example ), the drug reps make it a point of visiting MDs to discuss new products, etc. A major source of info for the MDs however, is the PharmD usually on staff. While the latter does not interact directly with the sales rep, they do know about new medications, their uses and their adverse side effects.
I should also add that many PhD scientists who work in cancer pharmacology also receive tasty lunches and other "gifts" from the pharmaceutical companies, especially if their research is cancer related and performed in a major cancer research center .
PharmD's are awesome.
Sadly, there are none at my private hospital.
PharmDs can be a real asset.
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