Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2715

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Katsanis , Prevel L, Olivanti , Christina C.
A review of patient education in promotional activities. Sponsored by the Canadian pharmaceutical industry: a descriptive study
1997 Oct 4;
http://www.fadmin.unb.ca/asb/paper42.htm

Abstract:

The authors attended two research based industry sector symposia on patient education and interviewed five high ranking employees of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assocation of Canada member companies who were will to be interviewed on the subject of patient education. In addition a questionnaire was sent to 51 directors of marketing in PMAC member companies. Almost 2/3 of respondents said that they spent between 1-10% of their promotional budget on patient education initiatives, 22% spent 11-20% and 9.4% spent 21-30%. The most popular industry sponsored education programs were 1) programs that distributed printed, audiovisual, software educational materials and 2) programs that made educational grants to nonproft organizations. In third place were disease awareness ads. Over 90% of respondents said that they were actively working with one or more nonprofit organizations. The fact that there is no direct government policy overseeing patient education initiatives was a concern to the respondents. The second most significant barrier to industry sponsored patient education initiatives is the “negative image of the industry.”

Keywords:
*analytic survey/Canada/ patient education material/ information from companies/ Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Canada/ patient groups/ quality of information/INFORMATION FROM INDUSTRY: PATIENTS AND CONSUMERS