5 ms·

This is an issue for both doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Doctors hate it because patients may want a drug that's not optimal for them (but I saw if on TV

by Dwolb 11y ago

This is an issue for both doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Doctors hate it because patients may want a drug that's not optimal for them (but I saw if on TV) and it's bad for pharmaceuticals because they've had to become marketing machines, investing massive amounts of money into advertising and sales apps. The biggest issue with an outright ban is consumer education. Someone, something, or some organization needs to be responsible for properly communicating and educating consumers on a drug, its benefits, and its negatives. It needs to be educational, supplemental, and neutral. Stuff like this does exist for cancer drugs but should spread to other drug areas as well.

sanderjd 11y ago
> Someone, something, or some organization needs to be responsible for properly communicating and educating consumers on a drug Why shouldn't this just be their doctor?
- jonlucc 11y ago
  The best reason, in my opinion, is that there are new drugs all the time. The FDA approves on the order of 20 or so drugs per year (that's new drugs, not including new generic versions of old drugs). So physicians have to learn 2 new drugs per month in enough depth to consider how it should change their current prescribing habits.
  - wpietri 11y ago
    Even if consumers were informed by some mysterious agency, doctors would still have to learn new things all the time, including which new drugs are appropriate to prescribe for which conditions. Since doctors have to learn that stuff anyhow, and since they already talk to patients, I don't think explaining drugs to patients is a particularly big burden.
  - aquadrop 11y ago
    And now, when advertising is allowed, doctors don't have to learn those new drugs?
    - brandonmenc 11y ago
      When there's a brand new drug for your semi-rare condition, your family doctor might not yet know such a drug even exists were it not for you seeing the ad and asking about it.
      - ejstronge 11y ago
        Family doctors are not likely to be treating a semi-rare condition. To put it in programming terms, a front-end web developer would seek advice from a networking expert if her or his application was experiencing a lot of networking difficulties.
  - CreRecombinase 11y ago
    That's not a good way to understand the problem. For any particular medical field, that number of new drugs is going to be much lower.
  - ejstronge 11y ago
    For most fields of medicine, new drugs (and not reiterations of previously-approved drugs) are rare. Further, a new drug will have generated extensive hype before its approval, given the requirement for Phase I, II and III trials for most approvals. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to state that physicians are more than able to track all drugs relevant to their core patient populations.
  - sanderjd 11y ago
    There are precious few professions that don't require constant skill-sharpening, and if anything, I would expect doctors to be amongst the best at keeping up to date. They spend more time than any of us being formally educated, so the informal self-education necessary to do the work seems like it should be natural. But I don't know anything about this stuff, and I'd love for someone who does to teach me a thing or two.
- djloche 11y ago
  I would argue that if you purchase a Health Care & Insurance Service plan from a megacorp, that corporation should be responsible for providing medical education and advocacy services to their customers. Eg. If you have a plan with Blue Cross, they should have both software and individuals that can advise and be a resource to you. Maybe these are medical students, or some 2 year medical advocacy degree, RN, pharmacist - someone with some experience working/studying in the health care industry. So you go to the doctor and the doctor says, this is my diagnosis, here is a treatment plan, you call up your Health Care Advocate and they review with you as a second set of eyes on the issue. Maybe it all checks out, maybe there is a generic that could save you a ton of money, maybe there is a new drug that works better and your doctor was just going through the motions and isn't up to date on the drugs for your particular issue, but either way, having someone else there to help you get the best care would be a huge benefit, and thus a huge industry opportunity.
alkonaut 11y ago
> Someone, something, or some organization needs to be responsible for properly communicating and educating consumers on a drug, its benefits, and its negatives. We call those people doctors. > patients may want a drug that's not optimal for them (but I saw if on TV) A doctor that ever caves to such a request is a terrible doctor.
- jdmichal 11y ago
  To be fair, the pharmacists should also be aware of major drug facts and interactions. But by the time you're talking to one of them, you already have a prescription anyway so...

by Dwolb 11y ago

sanderjd 11y ago

> Someone, something, or some organization needs to be responsible for properly communicating and educating consumers on a drug Why shouldn't this just be their doctor?

jonlucc 11y ago
The best reason, in my opinion, is that there are new drugs all the time. The FDA approves on the order of 20 or so drugs per year (that's new drugs, not including new generic versions of old drugs). So physicians have to learn 2 new drugs per month in enough depth to consider how it should change their current prescribing habits.
- wpietri 11y ago
  Even if consumers were informed by some mysterious agency, doctors would still have to learn new things all the time, including which new drugs are appropriate to prescribe for which conditions. Since doctors have to learn that stuff anyhow, and since they already talk to patients, I don't think explaining drugs to patients is a particularly big burden.
- aquadrop 11y ago
  And now, when advertising is allowed, doctors don't have to learn those new drugs?
  - brandonmenc 11y ago
    When there's a brand new drug for your semi-rare condition, your family doctor might not yet know such a drug even exists were it not for you seeing the ad and asking about it.
    - ejstronge 11y ago
      Family doctors are not likely to be treating a semi-rare condition. To put it in programming terms, a front-end web developer would seek advice from a networking expert if her or his application was experiencing a lot of networking difficulties.
- CreRecombinase 11y ago
  That's not a good way to understand the problem. For any particular medical field, that number of new drugs is going to be much lower.
- ejstronge 11y ago
  For most fields of medicine, new drugs (and not reiterations of previously-approved drugs) are rare. Further, a new drug will have generated extensive hype before its approval, given the requirement for Phase I, II and III trials for most approvals. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to state that physicians are more than able to track all drugs relevant to their core patient populations.
- sanderjd 11y ago
  There are precious few professions that don't require constant skill-sharpening, and if anything, I would expect doctors to be amongst the best at keeping up to date. They spend more time than any of us being formally educated, so the informal self-education necessary to do the work seems like it should be natural. But I don't know anything about this stuff, and I'd love for someone who does to teach me a thing or two.
djloche 11y ago
I would argue that if you purchase a Health Care & Insurance Service plan from a megacorp, that corporation should be responsible for providing medical education and advocacy services to their customers. Eg. If you have a plan with Blue Cross, they should have both software and individuals that can advise and be a resource to you. Maybe these are medical students, or some 2 year medical advocacy degree, RN, pharmacist - someone with some experience working/studying in the health care industry. So you go to the doctor and the doctor says, this is my diagnosis, here is a treatment plan, you call up your Health Care Advocate and they review with you as a second set of eyes on the issue. Maybe it all checks out, maybe there is a generic that could save you a ton of money, maybe there is a new drug that works better and your doctor was just going through the motions and isn't up to date on the drugs for your particular issue, but either way, having someone else there to help you get the best care would be a huge benefit, and thus a huge industry opportunity.

alkonaut 11y ago

> Someone, something, or some organization needs to be responsible for properly communicating and educating consumers on a drug, its benefits, and its negatives. We call those people doctors. > patients may want a drug that's not optimal for them (but I saw if on TV) A doctor that ever caves to such a request is a terrible doctor.

jdmichal 11y ago
To be fair, the pharmacists should also be aware of major drug facts and interactions. But by the time you're talking to one of them, you already have a prescription anyway so...