Co-creation in health

Every few months, another study is released with the same general theme: Gifts from pharmaceutical companies compel docs to prescribe more costly drugs.

 

Last June, it was JAMA Internal Medicine suggesting that a single meal swayed doctors’ prescribing habits. Now, a review of Washington, D.C.-based physicians is again painting the entire profession in a bad light.

 

In a study published in the journal PLOS One, 2,873 Medicare Part D prescribers in the nation’s capital were analyzed based on their prescribing habits. The study found that 39% of the docs received gifts from pharmaceutical representatives in 2013—ranging from meals to ownership interest in products.

 

These physicians wrote 2.3 more prescriptions per patient claim, prescribed $450 more in medications per claim and prescribed 7.8% more branded drugs compared with those who did not receive a gift. The study also cited internal medicine and family medicine as two of the specialties most associated with significantly increased average cost of prescription claims.

 

[BTW, these were not physicians. Read “Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants are Also Swayed by Gifts from Pharma”; http://sco.lt/7ZWafp]

 

… to simply claim that “gift equals increased prescriptions” is not only disingenuous, it’s offensive to all doctors throughout the U.S. (not only those based in D.C.) And it is just unnecessary information to share with patients without explaining more of the details of these exchanges, which is simply not available in every case.

 

Physicians will do what is best for their patients. It’s time that studies like this start putting some facts behind their inflammatory research.

Via Pharma Guy