Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:08 pm   Reply with quote      

PRESCRIBING: Inducements won't work, unless you're offering a very handsome coffee mug

Doctors and their prescription pads are the 'delivery system' for pharmaceutical drugs. The doctors carefully choose the drugs that are most appropriate for the patient, bearing in mind his age, infirmity, and any other drugs he might be taking.

However, that this is not how it happens at all. A study of 1000 medical students around the United States has revealed that the doctor, on average, is offered - and accepts - a gift from a drug company every week as an 'encouragement' for him to prescribe a new drug that's just been launched.

Every student in the survey had accepted a sponsored lunch, along with a pen or coffee mug, from a drug salesman. More than four-fifths had attended sponsored functions, and half had also accepted textbooks.

Most worryingly of all, virtually all the students believed they were 'entitled' to the gifts, and 69% said the gifts would not influence their prescribing decisions (unless, of course, the lunch was in the Bahamas).
The researchers were concerned by the lack of skepticism displayed by America's medical students, and described them as 'naive' about drug company practices.

But those fuddy-duddy researchers forget that the key to good medical practice is to always have a reason. So when a tearful widow walks into the surgery, asking the doctor why he prescribed a completely inappropriate drug that killed her husband, the doctor can say: "Well, see that coffee mug over there. . .?"

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005; 294: 1034-42).

Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:24 pm   Reply with quote      

I hear doctors are often offered a trip to Caribbean and other places.

Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:54 pm   Reply with quote      

Yeah, it's good that people read things like this to remind them that in all sectors it's money that drives everything - not people.
Life is invaluable... when not compared to money. Sad, but true.

Fri Sep 23, 2005 11:46 pm   Reply with quote      

1. Money is not everything.

2. One of many problems is that the system driven by money only is not sustainable. It's flawed. For example, patients are not treated properly by doctors. Many patients get hurt.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:14 am   Reply with quote      

I agree with you 100% - that's exactly why I think the system is flawed!
Unfortunately, it seems that today money is everything, and I think that this affects the whole mindset of the people - adds to stress, and people worry & work themselves to death for it.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:57 am   Reply with quote      

I just mentioned this in the other thread, but I mention it again. So many people (in US) have tremendous amount of debt. I mentioned in the finance forum that average person has 9.4k credit card debt. That's just credit card debt. Once your debt reaches a certain level, you basically lose ability to think and act rationally. I think that this debt creates the illusion that money is everything that controls people's lives.