Doctors and drug companies – doctors need to resist the goodies
February 7, 2009
The Royal College of Physicians eagerly awaited report on the relationship between doctors and drug companies was released on Wednesday. It’s been covered heavily in the BMJ this week.
The report says:
it is our profession that has colluded in all of this and prepared to go along with it – we are the people to blame because we need not have stood for it
What is ‘it’, i hear you cry? The pens, tissues, M&S sandwiches, dinners, and so on i presume.
The BMJ editorial says the report is a missed opportunity due to a number of flaws in the design and execution of the report. It also suspects that the aim of the report was to patch up relations between the two sides – by blaming the doctors by the looks of things!
Entry Filed under: drug companies, drugs. .
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The Shrink | February 10, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I don’t have any truck with drug reps. I don’t own any drug rep pens, post-its, mugs, anything. They sponsor no meals and bring in no food. My conscience was clear.
Until a Journal Club presentation by an SpR showed studies evidencing how doctors’ prescribing practice is influenced by drug reps and was directly proportionately increased by the number (frequency) of visits. even in medics who didn’t think it did influence them. My conscience was piqued.
We discussed it within our Trust. The answer was elegantly simple. We need to wear clothes to work, but we don’t get paid to go shopping in the day. We need a car but don’t get paid to spend afternoons swanning off test driving zippy little numbers. We need to prescribe drugs, but don’t get paid to listen to drug reps. Whether the salesman is for clothes, cars or drugs (all of which are necessary in our work), the Trust doesn’t pay employees to listen to salesmen in Trust time. It’s in none of the Consultants Job Plans to meet with drug reps.
Solution : drug reps are banned from our premises, pharmacists deliver teaching/awareness training and drug reps are only invited for specific presentations (which has yet to happen).
Now when I look a patient in the eye and advise on Rx I know it’s solely because I think it’s the best Rx for them and not ’cause I’ve had flannel from a drug rep or seen that drug’s name on mugs and pens or whatever.
My conscience is once again clear.