Are Physicician's Relationships To Pharmaceutical Companies Unhealthy For Their Patients? (Part One)
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 94% of all physicians receive some sort of compensation from drug companies. These incentives may be in the form of food and beverages in the workplace, free drug samples, reimbursements for professional meetings or their continuing medical education, and direct payments for consulting, speaking, or enrolling patients in trials or studies. Such gifts and payments have a direct influence on the physician's ability to make sound medical decisions. The vast amount of amenities that the majority of physicians accept has made it difficult for them to any longer distinguish between legitimate sources of medical information from that which has been influenced by the pharmaceutical companies desire to market their products. This unfortunate situation has also blurred the lines between that which is actually educational, and that which is merely a marketing ploy.
Drug Companies Might Very Well Be Your Doctor's Only Source Of Education
It is quite likely that your doctor does not spend much time after hours going over reports and statistics on the latest drugs. It is more likely that the information he or she receives comes from drug representatives who are peddling their specific brands of medicines. According to a 2008 report, drug companies spend more than $50 billion dollars per year in promotions to help make sure that your doctor is actually listening to their high payed drug pushers.
Do These Doctor--Drug Company Relationships Effect Patient Health Care?
Although you would be hard put to find one doctor in a million who would admit that the many free gifts which they receive and enjoy from the pharmaceutical companies has any effect on what they prescribe to their patients, research has shown otherwise. These amenities in fact actually do influence prescribing practices. The nearly $20 billion dollars per year that the drug companies spend in building and maintaining relationships with physicians all over the country is proof enough that your physician's behavior is affected by these relationships, and these relationships do in fact increase sales or else the drug companies would not dish out that kind of money.
I believe that we place physicians on a great pedestal in this country and forget that they too are merely human beings who are just as capable of being influenced and persuaded by the love of money (greed), perks, and entitlements, as any other human being on the planet.
In this writer's opinion the question of whether or not a physician's financial relationship with a pharmaceutical company has any effect on the overall health care of a patient is really a no-brainer. It would actually be almost impossible to stay 100% committed to that which is actually best for the patient under a physician's care if the physician were promoting the drugs which payed for his or her new luxury automobile. This is quite obvious to me, but the question is, is it obvious to you? For your sake and the physical and financial well being of this great country I hope you will consider what is here written and start to make positive dietary and lifestyle changes in your daily walk and begin to rely less on your doctor who might very well rely too heavily on a big pharmaceutical company.
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