Doctor Smith the federal drug rep is here

Mar/20/2008 09:28 Filed in: Regulatory Environment
images-1
Senators Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin, and Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, are planning to introduce legislation that would authorize federal grants to prepare educational materials and train health professionals to conduct visits to prescribing physicians. Their hope is that the program would pay for itself by lowering drug costs to federal programs. Can you imagine the federal government calling on doctors to inform them about new drugs when doctors don't even have the time now to meet with drug reps? This is another example of stupidity and shows just how out of touch legislators really are with reality.


So let's get one thing straight, with the deficit reaching record proportions again and a military that is need of repair and upgrades the chance that the federal government would fund a project to have "federal drug salespeople" call on physicians is remote. But there is a lot more here that these senators don't understand. Doctors don't have time to meet with drug reps now what makes them think that they would want to meet with federal drug reps?


Physicians are getting squeezed by payers, practice costs and other high overhead costs. In the future a lot of physician offices are going to have to upgrade their computer hardware to comply with legislation that is going to push them for "e" medical record keeping. This is not going to be cheap by any means and could easily cost a thriving practice more than $200,000 to implement with tablet PC's and a server.


As Manhattan Research has reported more and more physicians are turning to the Internet (DUH) for medical information. If the federal government wants to get unbiased information to physicians it needs to do it through the Web not salespeople. The key of course will be to ensure that the information is relevant enough to engage physicians which makes me think that this program needs to be funded by the federal government but implemented by a private company with no ties to the drug industry.


The other issue at stake is the credibility of the FDA. As this blogger has reported before many physicians don't necessarily believe FDA guidelines on drug dosages and indications and thus prescribe off label quite a bit. If the purpose of this legislation is to get physicians to user cheaper generics than that information should be (and is) handled by payers. Today a lot of insurance companies are requesting head to head studies with generic equivalents and they could serve physicians well by providing them with data from these studies so that physicians can determine which medication to prescribe.


The last thing the industry needs or wants right now is another sales person in the lobby waiting to talk to physicians. Some physicians long for the days when drug industry representatives had some type of medical background, whether pharmacists, Pharm D's or even non-practicing physicians. These people could engage physicians in meaningful dialogue when they had a questions. Today's drug reps are often people right out of college with a business degree and who have been through a "medical boot camp". I am sure that these people can actively engage physicians in meaningful dialogue (NOT).
|