Post subject: Slightly shockng?

PRESCRIBING: Inducements won't work, unless you're offering a very handsome coffee mug

Doctors and their prescription pads are the 'delivery system' for pharmaceutical drugs. The doctors carefully choose the drugs that are most appropriate for the patient, bearing in mind his age, infirmity, and any other drugs he might be taking.

However, that this is not how it happens at all. A study of 1000 medical students around the United States has revealed that the doctor, on average, is offered - and accepts - a gift from a drug company every week as an 'encouragement' for him to prescribe a new drug that's just been launched.

Every student in the survey had accepted a sponsored lunch, along with a pen or coffee mug, from a drug salesman. More than four-fifths had attended sponsored functions, and half had also accepted textbooks.

Most worryingly of all, virtually all the students believed they were 'entitled' to the gifts, and 69% said the gifts would not influence their prescribing decisions (unless, of course, the lunch was in the Bahamas).
The researchers were concerned by the lack of skepticism displayed by America's medical students, and described them as 'naive' about drug company practices.

But those fuddy-duddy researchers forget that the key to good medical practice is to always have a reason. So when a tearful widow walks into the surgery, asking the doctor why he prescribed a completely inappropriate drug that killed her husband, the doctor can say: "Well, see that coffee mug over there. . .?"

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005; 294: 1034-42).

Post subject: Re: Slightly shockng?

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Yeah, it's good that people read things like this to remind them that in all sectors it's money that drives everything - not people.
Life is invaluable... when not compared to money. Sad, but true.

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