Interactions and Relationships with Healthcare Professionals
A bad doctor treats symptoms. A good doctor treats ailments. A rare doctor treats patients.
–Sidney Harris
But nothing is more estimable than a physician, who having studied nature from his end, knows the properties of the human body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will benefit it, exercises his art with caution, and pays equal attention to the rich and the poor. Voltaire. From A Philosophical Dictionary.
IDENTIFYING HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
Groups of Healthcare Professionals
There is little doubt that relationships between healthcare professionals and companies represent the lifeblood of the ethical pharmaceutical industry. These professionals are the people who make decisions that lead the company’s drugs being used or not being used. Healthcare professionals are described in a broad context and include two groups: practicing (i.e., patienttreating) healthcare professionals and non-patient-treating healthcare professionals.
Roles of professionals in practicing healthcare positions include:
Physicians in an outpatient-based practice
Physicians in an inpatient-based (hospital) practice
Practicing pharmacists in a hospital environment (also out of hospital, in those states that allow retail pharmacists to prescribe certain classes of drugs)
Nurses in various settings
Physician’s assistants particularly in those states where they have prescribing authority
Specialized groups of non-physicians who use drugs in their patients (e.g., podiatrists, optometrists, dentists)
A few of these groups of non-patient-treating healthcare professionals include:
Dispensing pharmacists in retail establishments, hospitals, clinics, or other locations. While not often treating patients in a “hands-on” manner, frequently the hospital pharmacist is part of a healthcare team that reviews and provides input to various complex cases.
Health organization formulary committees
Drug information specialists
Nurses who travel to homes of patients to deliver drugs and to assist with parenteral drugs
Technicians who assist with dialysis centers, surgical suites, and all other environments where drugs are used
Administrators who help patients with appointments and assist in other ways
TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships with Physicians
The most well-known relationship between the industry and physicians involves the sales representative and the individual treating physician. Physicians usually judge companies by their sales representatives and advertisements, as they are often the two most visible parts of a company to practicing physicians. Other less frequent interactions include contacts at professional meetings, symposia, educational courses, and exhibits. Companies attempt to educate physicians about their drugs, and physicians may seek information about drugs from their manufacturers.
Other relationships include those of sponsor (company) and investigator (physician). This relationship is exceedingly complex with numerous responsibilities on both parts and is described in several chapters in Section 6.
Relationships with Pharmacists
Pharmacists have a large variety of roles in healthcare delivery (Table 37.1).
As a result, a large number of relationships exist, and it is impossible to generalize about them as a homogeneous group. Marketers interact with a different group (in general) of pharmacists than do clinical scientists and physicians within a company.
Table 37.1 Selected roles of pharmacists who are external to a pharmaceutical company | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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