Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12992

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: news

A line between docs and drugs
Boston Globe 2008 Feb 25
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008

Full text:

Third in a series
PRESCRIPTION drug companies develop, manufacture, and sell powerful
medicines. Academic medical centers treat patients and train physicians.
Both the drug industry and the teaching hospitals play essential roles in
modern medicine, but their functions need to be kept separate, as they will
be under a policy recently unveiled by UMass Memorial Medical Center in
Worcester.

Health insurance companies and state governments have encouraged physicians
to prescribe generic products, and the rate of prescription drug inflation
has diminished significantly. But keeping inflation down is a constant
battle in healthcare. Academic medical centers, as shapers of physician
opinion, ought to lead the way in protecting physician education from
marketing by drug companies and their companion industry, the manufacturers
of medical devices.

The UMass Memorial policy, up for final approval Wednesday, would prohibit
hospital physicians from receiving gifts or meals from drug companies.
Doctors wouldn’t be able to accept drug samples, which would instead be
distributed by the central pharmacy. Donations to physicians for
educational programs would be banned. Companies could contribute to a
hospital fund for education or direct money to a department, but
administrators would determine the content of the program.

This policy goes against a tradition of drug company largesse, but
hospitals around the country are realizing that they can no longer serve as
marketing adjuncts. In Massachusetts, a nonprofit coalition under the
umbrella of the Prescription Project is shaping opinion to a strict
standard. Last summer, Boston Medical Center adopted a policy similar to
UMass’s, although physicians can partake of free food off campus if they
“use discretion.”

Elsewhere in Boston, Tufts-New England Medical Center bans gifts, and,
assisted by the Prescription Project, is working on a comprehensive policy.
The Partners network imposes restrictions, but many can be waived by a
department chief. Drug companies can offer informational meetings, with a
meal if the food costs less than $20 per person and the chief approves.
Samples can be accepted, if the program or department allows them, as can
gifts worth less than $100. At Beth Israel Deaconess, a company can pay for
food at seminars as long as the department approves. Doctors can get
samples (for poor patients), and gifts, too, up to an annual $300 limit.

Partners, at least, is working on a tougher policy. Dr. Daniel Podolsky,
its chief academic officer, cautioned, “We want doctors to know what is the
best state-of-the-art care.” Drug and devices companies spend billions of
dollars on marketing, and they’ll get their message out one way or the
other. Hospitals need to make sure the information is not tainted by even a
tiny bit of physician self-interest.