So there’s a bunch of rabble-rouser docs who are actually trying to enforce the often mouthed concept that doctors shouldn’t take freebies from pharma companies. They’re called No Free Lunch
And of course, given the actual views of mainstream doctors who believe that life was better when the pharma companies had no restrictions on the graft they could send their way, they are being banned by specialty societies from doing things like handing out the specialty societies own guidelines on gift-receiving to its members, and of course from buying a booth at the oh-so-well incorruptible AAFP’s convention. Jim Edwards at Brandweek has more. But let’s not be too surprised.
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LOL. Does this surprise anyone? Not to sound preachy, but Mother Teresa said it best when asked who is the “poorest” nation? To paraphrase- ‘The US has the greatest wealth per capita yet is the poorest of heart and spirit. I absolutely agree. A thousand years from now it will be a new world with a new mindset to how to make the world be more as “one”. It has to be…or we will be yet another extinct species. All the potential yet a failure in our grab bag way.
On a personal note, I have a brother who’s an MD. He and especially his wife are as cheap on all “giving” matters except their special interests. She, who chose “wisely” as she has no real ambition but rides the coat tail well, very well since her youth typifies the empty, in a sense frightened to be poor “soul”. Harsh words or the harsh truth of some lives?
//through their own practices?//
Are you asking me? The answer is it wasn’t for their practices. All these women were totally grabby, cooing about how much swag they got, and giving each other directions to the good stuff. I didn’t want to specify the gender, but it was mostly women, and they fulfilled every superficial and self-centered stereotype that’s ever been applied to the female gender. Even wearing Channel-like suits! It probably wouldn’t have bothered me as much if they were just plain folks who scored some expensive skin cream. However, these were upper middle class, wealthy wives of doctors: they had the means of buying the classy skin cream.
Do you think its a possibility that they were going to give the samples away – just possibly – through their own practices?
I helped with a patient advocacy kiosk at a few medical conferences that focused on derm in the 90s. Married couples worked the conference in teams: the M.D. went to the lectures while the spouse and kids ran around grabbing the wonderful skin solution freebies: it was a real frenzy. At the time it struck me as ironic that people who could already afford top of the line products and a few weeks at a spa were racing for the free sample of astrigent. I think they should have invited a group of homeless people onto the exhibit floor instead: they are the most likely to have serious skin problems, and the least likely to be able to afford the “luxury” of a specialist or an expensive product line to resolve them.