Posted on 09/13/2006 5:13:53 PM PDT by LibWhacker
SAN FRANCISCO - Stanford University will bar physicians working at its two hospitals from accepting even the tiniest gifts from drug industry sales representatives to try to eliminate corporate influence from medical decisions, the school announced Tuesday.
The policy takes effect Oct. 1 and also bans accepting gifts from other companies such as medical device makers that do business with the hospitals.
The policy also prohibits the doctors from accepting free drug samples and publishing articles in science journals that were ghost written by corporate authors.
The industry's sales force also would be prohibited from areas where patients are seen and from dropping in without appointments, a common sales tactic.
Even coffee mugs, pens and other trinkets doled out by drug companies can't be accepted anymore.
Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania have announced similar policies, and several other institutions are considering gift bans as they grapple with conflict of interest concerns and rising health care costs.
In January, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association said current relations with pharmaceutical representatives created conflicts of interest and urged academic medical centers to take the lead in adopting reforms.
The article said the drug industry spends about $19 billion annually marketing to doctors.
"Gift giving creates a reciprocal obligation that is a powerful force, and pharmaceutical companies know this very well," said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics who helped write the new policy. "So we're discouraging it from happening anywhere at the medical center."
The industry's trade group, the politically influential Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, blasted Stanford's new policy as draconian and argued that cutting down on doctors and sales representatives meetings would actually hamper health care.
"The sales representatives are typically very well trained and have quite a bit of information," said Scott Lassman, a lawyer for the trade group. "They are cutting doctors off from very useful information that they can use to help treat their patients."
Lassman said the trade group instituted its own gift policy in 2002 that prohibits lavish gift giving.
"Lavish, expensive meals, tickets to ball games and golf outings are really inappropriate," Lassman said. "But if I was concerned that my doctor was influenced by a pen or a slice of pizza, I would find another doctor."
I can see the last part, but banning free samples is going overboard. There were times when those free samples meant we didn't have to pare down the food budget to buy medicine.
I used to work for a very large group of doctors. You'd be amazed at the stuff they are given!
I know. I don't begrudge a doctor the occasional lunch or notepad. This is much ado about nothing.
The way I look at it... They're not really free samples; it's (usually very insufficient) reimbursement for the time doctors have to spend listening to a sales pitch.
I see you well-understand drug sales and marketing.
Yeah, my wife's a physician. One Saturday morning a few years ago our doorbell rings and it was FedEx delivering a free tree from a pharmaceutical company back east! Darn thing couldn't even have survived in this zone, lol. We didn't ask for it, didn't want it, and didn't appreciate it. The company darn sure didn't make any money on that blunder -- not from this household anyway!
I work with doctors and their policy is not to accept any gift that the pharmaceutical rep won't extend to the entire staff. The doctors discourage any gifts of value. Usually the reps bring in a buffet style lunch for the whole office and update everybody on what's new. Of course, they leave pens, post-it notes and a few samples on the table. However, no large or individual gifts are accepted.
My wife is a nurse and worked for several years for a group of doctors in our small town. She was told when she was hired that she wouldn't ever have to worry about lunch. Sure enough everyday a caterer would bring a huge spread of food that was paid for by a different drug company and it was for the doctors, their nurses and the receptionists. These catered meals must have cost several hundred dollars per day at least.
I wonder if my blood pressure medicine would cost less than 130 dollars per month if the drug company that makes them didn't participate in this scheme. It may seem piddly to some people but on a national scale they must spend billions of dollars every year which they add to the cost of the medicine that we HAVE to buy. I am against more laws by the government but this is one thing that should be stopped.
I've had the same thoughts. Catered lunch every day for 50 people plus pens, notepads, blackberry cases, calendars, notebooks, etc, etc. You know the cost for this is passed along to the consumer.
Oh and pharm companies contribute to graduation, christmas and other parties throughout the year as well.
heh heh, Saleswhores..... And me, with a big fat PO.
Once in a blue moon something would come along that had been prescribed personally for me by my doc, and I'd snag a few bottles of it.
About a third of all my wife's freebie samples went to a free clinic she used to do volunteer work for.
There was a hazardous medical waste disposal site at the hospital, but the freebie samples required special packaging. Basically it was a big pain in the neck dealing with the stuff no matter what you did with it.
The other little gifts: notepads, pens, paperweights, calanders, cheapo clocks, etc... those, we usually just handed out to friends, relatives and neighbors.
The pharmaceutical companies are just wasting their time doing this kind of advertising, imo. But heck, if it makes them feel better, let them do it.
The only time we I actually enjoyed any of it was when they invited spouses to one of those big lavish dinners. In those cases, they actually did put out some big bucks -- especially on the wine, which they sometimes allowed the doctors to order...hehe...
But as I said, even in those cases, you'd have to sit there listening to series of salesmen push a particular drug for a couple of hours. I enjoyed them because it was just in one ear and out the other. But you could look around the room and see all the doctors sitting there rolling their eyes, lol!
One time one of the doctors showed up drunk with a hooker on his arm, and got drunker as the night progressed, eventually almost getting into a fistfight with one of the sales reps. That was pretty funny.
All ancient history now for my better half and I... Gifts are no longer permitted where she works.
I worked for a brokerage house after getting laid off during the Clinton Recession. They were a lot more careful about spreading their samples around. Of course that was a completely different industry. Grocery wholesalers and manufacturers do not have the same profit line to soake p that kind of sales incompetence.
Curious however. When was this "Ancient history"? In the last 5 years?
Yes. I quit going to the dinners about five years ago and my wife quit bringing home samples when the university finally entirely banned the practice of pharmaceutical gifts (which was in 2005, iirc).
Really stupid marketing plan on their part. The Doctor with the hooker must of been a fun night though. Too bad nothing like that ever happened when I was in Procurement! Guess I picked the wrong industry to work in.
Corporate influence is newspeak for bribery. If they have a good product they should be able to get doctors to use it without any payoff. Of course they could try to bribe the end user with rebates, discounts, promises, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.