Do doctors get incentives for pushing certain types of drugs??
I would think so in one way or another. I dated a girl that worked a Dr. office and some of the things the "drug reps" would bring in or the places they catered lunch in from???Pens, writing pads, donuts, lunches.... I don't think they get a monetary kickback though.I think the UK incentive for Docs would be better, where the doctors get paidMy mom mentioned something about kickbacks. I wondered if that is why my rd wanted to put me on enbrel within 5 minutes of meeting me.
I would actually like to flat out ask them.
Are you going to, Christina? I'd like to hear his response.I am thinking about it. I don't want to stir the pot until I find a new RD.
When I find a new one I will definitely ask him.
I'll ask my dr when I see him next. Hes very laid back and wont take offense to that question. It'll be good to find out...New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 356, No. 17, April 26, 2007: 1742-1750
Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 297, No. 11, March 21, 2007: 1216-1223
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/opinion/02mon2.html?th& ;emc=th
I have a ton more if anybody really wants it.
Pip
Pip, you have an article for everything. How do you do that?-January 25, 2006
The pharmaceutical industry's practice of offering gifts and incentives to doctors undermines medical care, hurts patients, and should be banned; say a group of influential doctors. This unequivocal statement was issued in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association .
The group of highly esteemed medical professionals believes this ban needs to begin at the level of medical schools and teaching hospitals. They add that all doctors should adopt the practice of refusing to accept the pharmaceutical industry's gifts, which many perceive as unscrupulous bribes.
If doctors adopt these recommendations, it would change their daily professional lives and abolish one of the drug industry's primary sources of expenditures. Unfortunately, some experts feel it is not likely that many doctors will adopt this practice.
Dr. Blumenthal, one of the article's authors, who has studied conflict in the medical professional for years, believes it is "not very likely" that many doctors will listen to the group.
While federal law prohibits the drug industry practice of paying doctors to prescribe or promote certain medications, the practice of offering gifts and other incentives to the same end is almost entirely unregulated. Some professional guidelines say that doctors should refuse accepting gifts above a "modest" value; however, few adverse repercussions come when doctors accept more "lavish" gifts.
The drug industry spends more on wooing doctors than it does on research and consumer advertising combined.
For many doctors, a large percentage of their income comes from consulting arrangements with the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors' vacations are largely paid for by drug companies.
In a recent defective medical device lawsuit, it was revealed that one Wisconsin doctor received 0,000 for working just eight days under a consulting contract with Medtronic.
According to surveys, most doctors do not feel that drug industry gifts influence their practice. HOWEVER, those same doctors believe these gifts significantly affect the medical judgment of their colleagues.
According to the editor-in-chief for The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Catherine DeAngelis: "There has been a substantial change in the way pharmaceutical companies function over the last decade. Drug makers are far more aggressive in their marketing efforts and these efforts are having a deleterious affect on the practice of medicine."
Kaiser Permanente, a California based medical group, is one of the few physician organization to adopt nearly all of the recommendations recently made by prominent doctors. Kaiser says it is extremely important, "that our patients never had a doubt that the decisions made about a drug or device was based on the interests of the patient, and not the financial interest of the physician."
For more information on drug safety concerns, please contact us.
LOL - it doesn't effect them but it effect's their collegues!
Linncn - Because my silly brain finally realized that couldn't re-find all the stuff I was reading via Google - so I copy the web site address and then the entire article (minus ads) and send it to myself via email. Lately I'm experimenting with the subject line - like Pharma - payola or Pharma - disclosure. Then I made folders and started dumping stuff in it. So - when somebody says 'Pharma' and kickbacks, I have some of the stuff on hand. Not the stuff I sent to myself in the beginning tho - need to re-send with some sort of discriptor.
This idea will work for a lot of us and our meds, vitamins, etc. It's cool because somebody might need the stuff you found later.
Pip
I'm still not giving up my big foam rubber Viagra tablet or my squishy brains and hearts (can't remember what drugs those are for). Jasmine, I have one of those big rubber viagra tablets too.We have a kid's table and chair set a friend got from a drug rep and handed down to us when his kids were too big. It's not all ink pens and doughnuts.I have to say I love the the pens!!
Thanks for the articles! That answers my question.
That was a great question and Pip, it made me smile to see those links you posted. You're our personal researcher and Lev's posts have been really informative too. Thanks to you both.Did anybody see "House" last night? It was older episode I had never seen before. They had a new chairman of the hospital board, and he wanted to start doing clinical trials there.
House said no, our patients aren't guinea pigs. Cuddy said pharmaceutical cos. do it all the time. House said, "Are we a pharmaceutical company?'
I know the reality is clinical trials done through physician's offices are necessary, but it was interesting to hear it laid out that way.
YES YES they do....how do you think hospitals get their funding? and how insurance companies can provide for you? so i think thank goodness they do...and its also how there are so many meds that are out their- for us included.
look at mtx... it was origionally a cancer drug, they noticed that the patients that had cancer and were on mtx had their arthritis symptoms decrease....so they did a clinical trial for various arthritis diseases and deturmined that it worked in ra patients. with out the drug companies pushing the drs and hospitals (and obviousally the fda) it might not have been used
Yes, but that was a long time ago, when they still used the phrase "ethical drug business" - drug cos. set aside research for the common good, not just profit.
It seems now they would just leave it up to doctors to put themselves at risk rx'ing it off-label, as opposed to paying for trials on a cheap drug.
By the way, that is the reason I am given that Enbrel is approved for use in children, but not mtx. They would get their money back after the trials because Enbrel costs so much. Nobody will pay to test mtx for children. Very sad.
mtx is the drug of choice for the treatments for jra, we were just learning about it in nursing class the other day. during one of the independent studies we had to do i was looking at some journal articles and found one that said about 75% of meds that are typically used for children are not actually approved by the fda for use in children- what they do is look at the disease process and if it works in the same way in children as adults than they say it will work and they adjust the dose by the weight of childRight, unless you are a pricey drug like Enbrel. Then you pay for the studies for the approval. Humira is trying now, too.
Our friend who is a doctor warned us in the beginning that peds is not just adult med divided by four. Unfortunately, with JRA you are pretty much left with going by that - taking lower doses of adult meds, untested on children. Still very sad to me. It might do the same to the disease process, but you have no way of knowing what it does to a growing, developing child, do you?????
I agree... their bodies are still growing and changing. Scary stuff!