American Medical Student Association, Medical Letter Team Up to Combat Drug Marketing

Patients trust their doctors to prescribe medications based on their effectiveness and appropriateness for the condition being treated, but the country's 90,000 pharmaceutical representatives stake out hospitals and doctor's offices and dangle free lunches, sample packs and gifts in an effort to win doctor loyalty to their product. In a press release, The American Medical Student Association announced a partnership with The Medical Letter, Inc., a non-profit organization that offers unbiased information on drugs. The two groups hope to combat the pressure medical students feel to prescribe medications based on sales pitches.

Medical students in their first year if clinical rotations will receive free subscriptions to various versions of the Medical letter on Drugs and Therapeutics. The publication is free of pharmaceutical advertising an offers a critical look at the risks and benefits of drugs, with an emphasis on new products.

"With the proliferation of industry-supported advertising and promotional events at an all time high, it is imperative for all health care providers to critically evaluate the source of their new drug information. It has never been more important for those within the medical community to realize that where you hear about new medicines first, matters," said Gene Carbona, current executive director of sales at The Medical Letter, Inc. The AMSA was the first national organization to prohibit drug advertising in its literature and at its sponsored events. They have also encouraged medical schools and university-based health care organizations to limit the number of drug representatives allowed in the schools and hospitals.

The first year of hospital rotation is often the first exposure that many medical students have to pharmaceutical representatives and sales pitches. Michael Ehlert, M.D., AMSA's national president said "More than 90,000 drug reps roam the halls of our hospitals providing free lunch, branded toys and pens, free samples and other marketing paraphernalia...It is their job to 'buy' the prescribing habits of physicians and physicians-in-training. And they go to great lengths to do so."

The AMSA hopes that having access to unbiased drug information, medical students will be able to wade through the vast amount of sales information presented to them. "By partnering with The Medical Letter, AMSA is now able to provide its membership with comprehensive evidence-based training tools. For more than five years, AMSA has warned students that drug reps may be providing them with skewed information in order to sell brand name pharmaceuticals, but it is the first time we have given them the necessary tools to combat the marketing dribble," said Dr. Ehlert.

Source: Press Release (http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=3539051&view=LOCAL)