How Good Doctors Can Help To Break The Doctor And Pharma Nexus
Case History :
Good doctors are worried about the extent to which medical corruption has infiltrated the medical profession. This has harmed the reputation of all doctors, as a result of which society perceives us as being greedy mercenaries who are out to make a quick buck at the expense of their patients.
The pharma-doctor nexus is an open dirty secret, and has caused a lot of harm to all doctors - even those who refuse to be wined and dined by pharma. However, as individuals we seem to be helpless in countering this trend. Good doctors ( and most are good) take pride in how they refuse to take bribes from pharma , and most of us all believe that we have a much higher standard of personal ethics as compared to our colleagues. While we all know doctors who accept bribes, we feel we are above this, and will never get contaminated by financial incentives. We all have a clear conscience !
Sadly, we are just fooling ourselves. Pharma marketing departments are expert at manipulating doctors, and are happy to disguise the offers they make to us so cleverly, that we don't even realise we are being seduced ! Here's a simple suggestion which all of us can follow. We should refuse to attend any conference, lecture, CME or workshop which is funded, even partly, by companies and organizations with ties to pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. We do have power as individuals, and if we refuse to attend, then the conference organisers will have to think of alternative ways of holding these. After all, you can't have a conference without delegates, can you ?
This will mean that medical associations will have to eliminate their dependency on funding from pharma - funding which comes with its own pound of flesh, which is often cleverly disguised ! This means they will no longer be able to have conferences at 5-star hotels, or at exotic locations, and perhaps this is all for the best ! After all, the purpose of a conference is to impart information, and why does this need to be done in a posh hotel ? Lots of medical colleges have high quality conferences in their lecture halls, without asking for money from pharma ! Do doctors have such little self-respect that we need our bills to be paid by someone else ? Or is this a freebie we are happy to accept, because all our friends and colleagues do this as well ?
This is an important step to take, because this would change the way we prescribe drugs, as it will reduce the influence which the pharmaceutical industry has over us . Significant harm has been done to patients' wallets and doctors' reputations because of overzealous marketing by pharma. The fact that pharma has to spend big bucks to induce us to prescribe a particular brand itself suggests something is wrong. Why do we as independent , well-informed and highly educated medical professionals need to be tutored by industry ? Aren't we able to think independently for ourselves ?
Sadly, industry sponsorhip ( in the clever garb of unrestricted grants for medical education ) has become the de facto standard today, and doctors vie amongst themselves as to how much money they can raise from pharma, in order to invite film stars and celebrities to medical conferences, so that doctors can take selfies with them ! This has become such as an integral part of medical conferences today, that we forget that this is a trend which was established only in the last 10 years ! Can't we read medical textbooks and journals, and decide for ourselves what the best treatment option for our patients is ? Can't we practise evidence based medicine on our own, without any help from pharma, which always has a hidden agenda , which costs our patients money then cannot really afford to waste ?
Investigation :
Banishing pharma from sponsoring conferences will save money for our patients , as we will start to prescribe generics over branded medicines. More importantly, the image of physicians as “ being in the pocket of drug companies” would be reduced over time, enhancing public trust in doctors.