In this season where time is valuable and finals are so close, I'm resorting to a sneaky measure basically the same as re-gifting... putting some nice new wrapping paper on a previous gift and handing it off as something new. Yes, I'm re-dating a blog post as if I just wrote it today.
Okay, not really. I'm just kindof supplementing it. There's a reason to this, beyond the fact that I'm too busy to actually write a whole new post: it's that though my daily study time devoted to procrastination, I found another incredible article about drug reps. It's hefty, but well-written and choc-full of fascinating and jaw-dropping anecdotes.
Take, for instance, the drug rep who arranged for a doctor to receive an "unrestricted educational grant" of $35,000 from a drug company...the doctor requested the cash so he could install a swimming pool in his back yard.
This whole crazy world of drug reps is one that I'm just starting to learn about. As a medical student, it's a little scary. I'd like to say that I'll be immune to it, but if I'm faced with accepting the kleenex box with a drug company's name on it, what's wrong with that? And if that's ok, then what's wrong with taking the pen? then the anatomical poster - it's for my patient's benefit! then lunch for my office staff, and then the dinner at a steakhouse, then a trip to Paris, and then asking for an unrestricted educational grant of $35,000??
Here's the link to the article.
And here's the link to my previous blog post, in case you missed it.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
You thought the pharmaceutical industry was slimy... version 2
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
You thought the pharmaceutical industry was slimy before reading this post?
You're a drug rep selling psych meds (hey, had to make the post fit this week's Grand Rounds somehow!), and you have to meet your quota. The family doc whose office you're walking up to right now, though, is 100% hardass.
You can bet that you won't even get the chance to have any face time with him - even though his secretary always cleans out your briefcase full of samples (this doc's one of the "sample-grabbers" you heard about in training), this doc will only see you if it's by accident, and even then, pretend you don't exist.
Which of the following best describes your attitude?
a) Scared stiff.
There's no way you can up sales if you can't even see the doctor.
b) Pretty nervous.
What if he's behind the counter when you come in and he yells at you?
c) Pissed off.
This is going to be a waste of an appointment.
d) Thrilled.
You know you can accomplish your objectives - probably even better - even if you only talk to the secretary.
If you answered D, you're a slimy lizard, and you'll make an ideal drug rep.
In fact, you'd make an even better one if you believe that there's a "d) thrilled" answer for every single type of doctor - from those who prefer competing drugs, to the skeptical, to the high-prescribers, to the friendly and outgoing, to the ones who won't even meet with drug reps.
That is, after all, how the drug companies train their reps to think.
Thanks to a new journal article out called "Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Infl uence Doctors," available to anyone here at the PLoS online peer-reviewed journal, you can get an eye-opening glimpse into the mind of a pharmaceutical drug rep.
The article concludes, "Physicians must rely on information on drugs from unconflicted sources, and seek friends among those who are not paid to be friends."
I'll admit, reading this made me a heck of a lot more wary. Even just a few months into medical school, I've already seen drug reps in action at the family practice clinic I go to for class an afternoon a week. I've seen everything including pens, patient chart notes, and Kleenex boxes supplied by drug companies, with their logo stamped thereupon (though I honestly can't remember any of those sponsoring companies...then again I haven't been prescribing very much yet). I've also gotten a couple free meals thanks to drug companies, and there are students in my class (who instill much jealousy within me) that have clinic at a group family practice office and a different drug rep each week brings lunch for all the docs and staff there.
I strongly encourage you to take a look at the article, even if it's just to browse the fascinating table explaining how a drug rep approaches each of the doctor types listed above. If, like me, you had little to no idea what's going on - or, if you're routinely visited by these reps - you need to at least give this article a glimpse.
By the way, I proceeded to write about this again - link to Version 2, here.
