Re: Peer reviewed publication no guarantee of quality
- From: William Wagner <not-to-here-williamwag@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 07:19:27 -0400
Doctors Object to Gathering of Drug Data
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/business/04prescribe.html?pagewanted=2&;
ei=5094&en=346cd8831aba4c5d&hp&ex=1146801600&partner=homepage
or http://tinyurl.com/jlvle
Dr. Brad Drexler, who was one of the first doctors to complain about the
drug industry's collection of prescription data, with a patient
Wednesday.
By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: May 4, 2006
Although virtually unknown to consumers, the information has long been
considered the most potent weapon in pharmaceutical sales ? computerized
dossiers showing which physicians are prescribing what drugs. Armed with
such data, a drug sales representative can pressure a doctor to write
more prescriptions for a name-brand medicine or fewer orders for a
competitor's drug.
But now a rebellion is under way by some doctors, who consider the
data-gathering an intrusion that feeds overzealous sales practices among
the nation's estimated 90,000 drug company representatives. Public
officials are also weighing in. A vote on a state bill to clamp down on
the practice is scheduled for today in New Hampshire, and similar bills
have been introduced in other states, including Arizona and West
Virginia.
To appease the doctors and try to stave off the state restrictions, the
American Medical Association will soon give individual physicians the
choice of declaring their prescription records off limits to drug sales
representatives. The new measure is viewed as a self-policing move that
the drug industry and the A.M.A., which has lucrative contracts with
data-mining companies, hope will keep states from banning sales of
prescription data altogether.
If the A.M.A effort succeeds, "legislators will turn their attention
elsewhere, and the industry can hang on to one of its most valuable data
sources," according to an article this week in the industry trade
magazine Pharmaceutical Executive, which was co-written by an A.M.A.
official and an executive with the leading vendor of prescription data.
Even many critics concede that patients' privacy is apparently not an
issue, because the tracking systems identify only the prescribing
doctors, not patients. But many doctors find the use of the data by
sales representatives an intrusion into the way they practice medicine.
"These doctors were outraged that people came into their office and
talked to them about how many times they prescribed a particular drug,"
said Dr. John C. Lewin, the chief executive of the state medical
association in California, one of the states where complaints about the
current system arose.
..................................
SNIP Large
More at above URL.
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