Casey gets a ton of magazines, newsletters and newspapers for doctors and occasionally I read some of the articles. This week the American Medical News, a newspaper for the American Medical Association, had an article about some medical schools banning freebies from pharmaceutical companies. Here's the quote from one of the doctors: "There's a growing awareness that pharmaceutical promotions subtly, and not so subtly, impact physicians' decisions." (emphasis mine) Really? A growing awareness? They're just beginning to realize that this may influence their decisions? What did they think before - that the rich drug reps didn't think doctors could afford pens and paper, fancy lunches and dinners, etc.? Poor doctors with their meager salaries. Drug companies spend $21 billion a year marketing to doctors (according to the article), all out of the goodness of their own hearts? Yeah, these doctors are pretty bright.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am sad (maybe even bitter) that spouses are no longer allowed to attend these fancy dinners because that would be going too far in ethically marketing to physicians. I don't know who made the rule, but it's a federal law or something, and I'm very disappointed to miss out on this perk. ;-(
On a more serious note, let's hope that this trend of banning freebies catches on and the drug companies can use that $21 billion to make drugs more affordable or to grow their programs that provide free drugs (the prescription kind, not the street stuff) to those with a low income. I can afford to go buy my own pens and sticky notes (right now we don't have to because just about every pen and sticky note pad in our house has some drug name on it. On my desk right now I have stuff from Zosyn, Pulmicort and Alsius. I don't know what they're for, but the pulmicort pen writes nicely)
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