Posted by noa on January 31, 2004, at 16:20:37
In reply to Re: experienced docs and pharm companies » Althea8869, posted by Penny on January 29, 2004, at 8:48:55
I read that this is a big issue in med schools and hospitals that train interns and residents---of course, no matter how much good the pharm industry does, they are a business and will try to find inroads for marketing to docs. So the question is, who is responsible for maintaining appropriate boundaries. I do not think the pharm industry is responsible, I think the medical profession and the government, ie, us, the people, are responsible for upholding proper boundaries between marketing and professional ethics. We the people, via laws to set boundaries around access and truth in marketing, etc. have an obligation to monitor those boundaries. And the medical profession most definitetly has the obligation to maintain boundaries that are consistent with the ethics of medicine. And the training institutions, I feel, do have a major obligation to maintain a distance between the pharm marketers and the trainees, because trainees really could be vulnerable to the influence of the marketing people. But I think that even experienced pdocs need to keep an eye on how much influence the marketers have in their prescribing decisions. And the medical boards and professional organizations need to be overseeing these relationships. Pharm reps should not be allowed to participate in patient office visits, for example. And there should be some way that patients should have access to honest disclosures from the pdocs about the relationships they have with marketers, and how the pdocs are maintaining professional imparitality in the face of these relationships.
Rant over. :)
poster:noa
thread:306238
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040131/msgs/307822.html