Don’t trust your doctor
Tags: doctor – physician – drug companies – pharmaceutical firms – drug marketing
When I hire an attorney or a realtor, I am assured of one thing: she or he will do the best for me. He will not put anyone else’s interest above mine (I understand, of course, that he runs a business and needs to make money). I expect the same from anyone else that I hire, and generally speaking, that is how it works out.
Not so with doctors and that is a shame. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 94% (which to me means almost 99%, because chances are that the rest 5% are lying and maybe only 1% are actually good doctors) of American doctors are in bed with the drug companies. In other words, when I visit a physician, he is more likely to think of the drug company than me. That hurts.
Of course, the pharmaceutical industry is to be blamed as well, but I expect higher ethical standards from a doctor. It is one thing to accept free drug samples and passing it on to patients who can’t afford, but it is disgusting that they accept other benefits like all-expenses paid “educational trips” that are more about banquets and golf in luxurious tropical resorts than education (which typically includes sales pitch for drugs). I never expected that pharmaceutical industry (which is supposedly in the noble business of helping people) would engage in such shameful practices. Indeed, everything may be fair in business, but this clearly crosses the line.
My brother who is a doctor started to receive so many requests for meetings with drug sales reps that he had to limit it to ten per day (it was starting to hurt his practice) and I still think that is too high. And these salespeople know what they are doing. They even conduct a little research to find out about his family, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, etc. and then try to pretend that they are family friends in hopes of influencing his prescription behavior. They have offered all kinds of incentives (vacations, gifts, etc.) for prescribing a specific drug.
And I also don’t trust those doctors who claim that they are not influenced. The drug industry tracks prescriptions written by each doctor and reacts accordingly. Remember, how Merck even approached supervisors of doctors who criticized Vioxx and tried to get them demoted/fired?
So the message is Never trust your doctor. Be careful with everything that he says; chances are that your best interest is not on his mind.
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