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Lessons Learned from a Pharma-Free Practice Transformation
- refurb 13y agoThe Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell was read and discussed. The fact that Marcia Angell's book was required reading pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the clinic's culture. Angell's book is a terribly one sided and highly inaccurate depiction of the pharma industry. She has made statements that boggle the mind of anyone familiar with how the industry operates.
- sveme 13y agoI'm somewhat familiar with industry practices (worked on software for the pharma industry) and just read 'Bad Pharma' by Ben Goldacre. It is a pretty well sourced and argued description of practices in the pharma industry and I haven't seen any worthy rebuttal of his arguments. I'm not familiar with Marcia Angell's book, would you care to elaborate on those 'statements that boggle the mind'?
- refurb 13y agoProbably one of the better critiques of Angell's statements is Derek Lowe, an R&D chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2012/12/03/marcia_angells_interview_i_just_cant.php http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2012/12/03/marcia_angel... I have no problem if someone disagrees with the pharmaceutical industry on a fundamental level (i.e. "there should be no profit in healthcare"), but if you start spreading misinformation and half-truths, I lose a lot of respect for that person.
- sveme 13y agoInteresting, thanks. Though not having read her book, one of the critiques seem to be that pharma companies spent a disproportionate amount on marketing and sales. And that is something I have to agree with. At the moment it looks like the industry is closing research facilities all the time one of their drugs falls from the patent cliff while keeping marketing budgets untouched. Looking at the research organization and the innovation of their approaches, I must say that they are vastly behind and extremely conservative. Novartis seems to be doing it right, though.
- temphn 13y agoThe paper here is completely backwards. It is because of the AMA, HHS, FDA and the rest that doctors spend 30 years getting licensed. After this point they are isolated, and kept separate from the rest of the medical supply chain (drugs, devices, imaging, diagnostics). Try doing it full stack and see how quickly the attorney general comes at you for competing with the local hospital. Doctors are also kept in the dark about prices, though are all too happy to accept high salaries. This set of affairs is one of the contributors to spiraling costs. No one wants to admit that health care has a price, and that the scarcity of (say) MRI machine time will either be allocated by market mechanisms or by queues and politics.
- uslic001 13y agoDoctors can't even accept a pen from the pharma industry anymore. This paper is about 20 years past when it would have helped make a difference.