Medical Course: To deal with drug companies
The pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars a year on marketing to doctors — sometimes throwing lavish events to seal the deal on certain medicines.
Critics say slick promotion is unduly influencing how drugs get prescribed, sometimes to the detriment of patients. A small number of schools are now adding lectures and continuing education seminars aimed at persuading doctors to challenge claims made during sophisticated sales presentations.
For these sessions, the actors will play pharmaceutical company sales representatives. The students will be taught “how to effectively spar with the drug reps” by asking aggressive questions, Dr. Ethan Halm said.
Another part of Mount Sinai’s program will advise health care providers how to tactfully deal with patients who see a drug on television and demand a prescription for it.
Almost daily, Halm said, doctors prescribe wonderful but lesser-known medications, only to have patients react as if they’ve been offered a second-rate imitation.
“They say, ‘What about that thing the actor was using on TV? Can I get that instead? My insurance company is paying. Don’t give me the cheap stuff,”‘ Halm said.
Source: cnn.com
Hahhahaha! This would be first time that medical students are taught how to detect and deal with deliberate lies.
We even had to learn by ourselves how to deal with malingering ‘patients’.
Bernard, I think this is what we can call ‘kemahiran hidup’?
Yes, the “kemahiran hidup” of the drug company is to convince the doctor to use their drugs and gadgets.
Did you read the post by palmdoc on NNT?
http://medicine.com.my/wp/?p=1452
sounds so familiar…eh i got no prob w reps wanting to bring me out makan..hehee..tak malu…but prescribing wat n which is still my choice ..no matter wat they belanja…
hmmmm….i’m getting suspicious liao. a couple of weeks back, the GP prescribed Dhacodine for cough & Locabiotal for my laryngitis -ver mahal ler RM99. Worst part was i believed that Loca thingy caused gastric discomfort.