Doctors Swayed by Pharma Companies

Doctors are more easily swayed in their prescription drug choices than the public may like to believe. A recent study published by JAMA Internal Medicine found that doctors who received free meals from prescription drug reps were more likely to prescribe the drug being represented. A ProPublica story revealed that doctors who took payments from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries prescribed a higher proportion of brand-name medications. It also found that the more money a doctor received, the higher the percentage of brand-name drugs he or she prescribed. This begs the question: do the doctors represented in these studies lack ethics or are their prescription choices subconscious? Read more here…