Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1312

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

Regush N.
Shame On You, American Medical Association
Red Flags 2003 Jun 18
http://web.archive.org/web/20071014161434/http://www.redflagsweekly.com/second_opinion_m.html

Full text:

Hey American Medical Association, lighten up!

This silly business about not allowing drug company representatives to sit in when doctors examine their patients…Get real.

It’s been going on for some time. Why the sudden need to criticize the practice? So what’s so bad about Dr. Joe examining Mrs. Smith’s rectum while a rep from a drug manufacturer looks on? These reps need to learn how a doctor handles a patient. And now, the big bad AMA is going to take this tradition, this educational tool, this marvelous opportunity to share intimacy, away from honorable people.

The AMA has adopted its first policy on “shadowing,” opposing the old practice of letting the rep sit in. Shame. The AMA, true to its calling, should have gone the extra mile on this issue and requested all of its members to even allow drug company reps to accompany patients to the bathroom when they produce urine or stool samples. The rep would thereby get first-hand information about how these valuable tests are conducted.
Furthermore, I would imagine that drug company reps, particularly those with a high learning curve and a sharp keenness, would even appreciate the opportunity to take over the full examination of the patient. What’s the big deal of taking, say, blood pressure, or sticking a thermometer into someone’s mouth, or elsewhere (such as under the arm). And what’s the big deal about consulting with the patient about the right drug that can be taken to alleviate symptoms. The rep knows more than the doctor about drugs, right?

And why stop there? Reps have been known to watch surgeries in progress and autopsies, and there must also be some interest in spending time, days on end, with people dying in intensive care units or, hell, even in wards that are quarantined against some new, mysterious emerging disease.

I’ll bet that those doctors, who up to this point have been receiving payments from drug reps to watch them in action, might be willing to allow them, for a much bigger fee, to take over the office for an entire day, maybe even a week. That way, there would be no mistake about patients receiving the correct medications.