Following my earlier article of today about drug use among seniors:
Dr. John Haggie, a Canadian Medical Association board member who chairs its ad hoc working group on pharmaceutical issues, said government warnings often get lost in the stack of documents physicians routinely receive.
Haggie warns that there is a lack of impartial information available to doctors.
"Most of the information the physician would receive in the general course of a week on medication by and large tends to come from material from drug companies," he said.
Drug companies have a very active sales and marketing team, he said, and they follow Health Canada warnings by issuing their own.
Health Canada warnings are sent out to physicians by fax, e-mail and mail, but are often one among many documents received.
Haggie said the CMA is trying to work with the academic community to provide doctors with unbiased education material to replace documents received from drug companies.
The association is also trying to get tools on its website so doctors can quickly access the latest peer-reviewed information on what drugs are safe and which need to be used with caution.
Related article:
Dangerous drugs still prescribed to seniors
editor's opinion:"Just as I thought...............the power of marketing"
No comments:
Post a Comment