Check mate It doesn't surprise me that patients are pawns in the ongoing chess match the pharmaceutical industry is playing with the health care system. What did come as a shock is where some drug companies are getting their strategic advice: from the American Medical Association (AMA). Apparently, the AMA -- the organization formed to "help doctors help patients" -- sells the information it gathers on physicians' prescribing habits to pharmaceutical companies, which use it to design targeted marketing campaigns. From there, the drug companies send out their henchmen -- the pharmaceutical sales representatives -- who push specific drugs on doctors who will be most likely to prescribe them to the most patients. It's a situation that has everything to do with strategy and nothing to do with the best interests or health of those of us on the receiving end of these "targeted prescriptions." What makes it even more despicable is that the AMA justifies its actions with sheer semantics: They insist they're not "selling" the information, they're "licensing" it, which, according to the AMA senior vice president of Publishing and Business Services, "means we can control where it goes, to whom it goes, and the manner in which it's used throughout our contract." The AMA has no qualms whatsoever about the information being used for marketing purposes and don't see how it should be cause for concern to physicians or patients. In fact, the same AMA representative mentioned above commented that "This is not really a patient issue, from our perspective, but I would ask how it would hurt patients if it's designed to provide physicians with information about therapeutics." Maybe he would have a point if this little system they've created resulted in providing physicians with information about ALL the therapeutic options for treating various conditions -- not just the ones the drug companies have whipped up out of "space alien" molecules that have no place in human bodies. But I'd be willing to bet that the AMA would turn down any supplement company that applied for a "license" to obtain the prescribing information so readily doled out to the pharmaceutical industry. So, despite their protests to the contrary, patients are, once again, the ones getting a raw deal, with doctors whose first instinct is to prescribe what they know most about -- and, unfortunately, thanks to the AMA, that's patent drugs. The good news is doctors can simply contact the AMA to opt out of this system via the Physician Data Restriction Program, or PDRP. The bad news is many doctors don't even realize the PDRP exists. Even worse, according to one survey, only 60 percent of physicians were even aware that the AMA is selling their information. The next time you're in for an appointment, ask your doctor if he or she is aware that the AMA is selling their personal information, and that drug companies are profiting from it. If it comes as news to them, let them know about the PDRP. And don't be afraid to tell them that you hope they'll choose to opt out, so that you'll continue to have options too, and not just the ones the pharmaceutical industry wants you to have. Source:
"AMA discloses masterfile physician data to pharmaceutical companies," Medscape Medical News (www.medscape.com), 7/12/07 | 
