PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING EDUCATION NEEDS REFORM, ADVOCATES SAY

A group of physicians and advocacy groups is taking on pharmaceutical promotions, calling in a journal article for an overhaul of the way healthcare professionals are educated on how to handle them.

The article, published in the November Public Library of Science Medicine Journal, gives four objectives to improve education on pharmaceutical promotions. The content of the article originated in an email discussion among representatives of the American Medical Students Association, Healthy Skepticism, No Free Lunch and PharmAware.

Significant education reforms are necessary because of the risks involved, the group said. It cited serious side effects from Vioxx and hormone replacement therapy as examples of the dangers of misleading promotion. Most medical and pharmacy school students spend only half a day or less learning about pharmaceutical promotion, the article said.

The first suggestion in the article is to educate health professionals about the decisionmaking process, including teaching them about persuasion and how to understand statistics. Ethical problems from receiving gifts should also be a focus, the group said.

The article also calls for professionals to learn that while all promotion may not be harmful, it is rarely beneficial. Many people believe they are more skeptical than they actually are, the authors noted. The groups cited evidence that exposure to promotional materials correlated to a medically inappropriate use of pharmaceuticals and suggested showing an intentionally deceptive piece of promotional material, having people discuss it and then explaining the misleading techniques used.

The third objective is to educate professionals on their responsibilities to avoid promotions, and to limit contact between sales representatives and doctors-in-training.

Finally, professionals should learn the most reliable sources of information, where to find them and how to keep up to date on the best sources, the article said. This way, healthcare professionals will be able to provide better information to colleagues and the public. The goal is to develop doctors and other professionals to be superior information alternatives to material from pharmaceutical companies.

The groups called their proposals necessary, but insufficient to fully combat the influence of promotional materials. The report can be seen at medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030451 (http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030451).