This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Dear friends and colleagues:

I imagine that you all have more on your minds today than professional reading, but I have updated News for Medical & Adult Educators and I thought you might want to read some of the new issues (listed below). You can link to all the publications here.

I would like to wish all of you the best for 2005.

Warm regards,

Anne

AAMC Reporter

ABMS Record

ACGME Bulletin [print]

ACP Observer

Alliance Almanac

Focus on Surgical Education

GAME Newsletter [available to members only]!

NLM Newsline

Say what you will about the pharmaceutical industry, but when it comes to helping out in the tsunami-induced crisis in Asia, it’s coming through. For example, Pfizer is donating $10 million to relief organizations, and another $25 million in healthcare products.

Merck is donating $3 million in cash. Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories are coughing up $2 million each, along with drugs and other healthcare supplies. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in antibiotics and antifungal drugs. Roche Group and GlaxoSmithKline PLC were also planning to donate supplies and/or cash. (For more, click here.)

First there was the whole Vioxx and Celebrex thing. And now there’s a new twist on an old drug: The FDA is doing a pilot study on the use of Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), better known for showing up in dance clubs than hospices, to help terminal patients. This from The Scotsman:

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a pilot study looking at whether the recreational hallucinogen can help terminally-ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones…The small four-month study is expected to begin early next spring. It will test the drug s effects on 12 cancer patients from the Lahey Clinic Medical Centre in the Boston area. The research is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit group that plans to raise 250,000 (-184,816) to fund it.

So, can we bring Timothy Leary back to teach the course on this one?

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According to this editorial in the Calcutta’s The Telegraph, physicians in India join the general public in not knowing much about AIDS, despite it being a huge problem in that country.

Political leaders and members of the medical community will have to share the responsibility for the abysmal level of public awareness about HIV in India. Doctors are the source of public knowledge about any disease. Unfortunately, even today, Indian doctors refuse to treat AIDS victims for fear of contamination.



Absence of mandatory  continuing medical education is the underlying cause for the lack of awareness about AIDS among many Indian healers. Most of the senior Indian doctors graduated before HIV emerged in its deadly avatar. Unless these doctors are forced to learn about the disease, there is every possibility that patients will continue to suffer due to their ignorance.

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This article in AmedNews outlines an interesting new strategy to encourage docs to reduce their liability by doing better risk management:

American Physicians Assurance Corp. through Jan. 31 is collecting stories from its 11,000 policyholders concentrated in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico and Ohio so that it can hand out the company’s first “Excellence in Risk Management Award.”



“We want to encourage physicians who meet high standards in terms of quality care and risk management,” said Cathy Burke, APA’s marketing director. “We think they go hand in hand.”

OK, someone just has to tie CME into this. What better way to both track behavior change and encourage innovative new ways to apply what they learn–without having to foot the bill yourself. I don’t see any downside to it–do you?

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I should just unsubscribe from the pharma marketing listserv–it makes me crazy to see some of the stuff they write. The thread going around now is about how to use key opinion leaders for a more effective product launch.

One person said:

KOL meetings will be more effective if the same is not directly sponsored by the company concerned. It would be better if the meetings are organised by a third party, such as an educational insitution or hospital and the communication mentions something like, under grant from ABC company.



This gives a touch of authenticity to the meeting.

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Looks like blogger Benjamin Rosenbaum has pulled together ratings for tsunami relief organizations. So if you want to make sure your donations will be put to good use, this should prove to be a good resource. As he says, give wisely, generously, and soon.

Looks like blogger Benjamin Rosenbaum has pulled together ratings for tsunami relief organizations. So if you want to make sure your donations will be put to good use, this should prove to be a good resource. As he says, give wisely, generously, and soon.

This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Here’s an interesting study from McMaster University about how pharmaceutical reps perceive their roles. The study appeared in the November 2004 issue of Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice. (Subscription required to view entire article.)

O’Donnell MJ, Molloy DW, Smith SD, Dubois S, Russo RM. The self-perceived role and educational needs of pharmaceutical representatives: a survey. Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice 2004; 17(3):339-345.

Introduction: Despite considerable debate in the medical literature about the educational utility of pharmaceutical representatives (PR), little is known about their attitudes towards their role as marketers and/or educators, their ability to provide comprehensive information about products and their learning needs.

Design: A survey.

Subjects and Method: Questionnaires were mailed to 606 PRs from five Canadian pharmaceutical companies.

Results: Of 309 (51%) respondents, 98% strongly agreed or agreed they had a role in educating doctors, while 52% strongly disagreed or disagreed their main goal was marketing. Overall, 92% agreed they had received adequate training to perform a well-informed detail, and 96% reported the information they provide is accurate. The majority (66%) felt a university-accredited program would improve the quality of their detailing.

Conclusion: Most PRs believe their main goal is education. Despite most reporting that they had received adequate training, they felt that a university-accredited educational program would improve the quality of detailing. The number of years that a PR spent in the industry appears to have an effect on how they perceive their role.

Publisher link

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While reports like this one recently have said that U.S. states wouldn’t have the infrastructure in place to deal with a bioterrorism attack, CME providers have been doing a much better job in arming docs to fight an attack. According to this press release on an article in The Lancet:

Continuing medical education programs and community drills (such as a simulated smallpox scenario [co-author R. Gregory Evans, Ph.D., MPH, director of the Institute for Bio-Security at Saint Louis University] and [Bruce W. Clements, MPH, associate director of the Institute for Bio-Security at Saint Louis University School of Public Health, and the lead author of the article] developed for the CDC for use by state and local health departments) are critical in preparing doctors, they said. The exercises are designed to help physicians see how things may unfold in an atypical outbreak of smallpox and how different their work environment might be.



“In a bioterrorism incident, physicians will have to interface with the FBI and other government agencies that they’ve never had to speak with before,” Clements says. “This type of communication doesn’t come naturally. It’s learned.”

And it’s important that it be learned, they add: “‘You don’t want to walk into your doctor’s office with flu-like symptoms and be told you might have Ebola,’ says Clements. ‘On the other hand, if you were exposed to something exotic, such as a biological agent, you would hope your physician has a high enough index of suspicion that he or she may take the extra moment to consider something unusual or atypical.’”

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I haven’t been writing about the tsunamis’ horrifying impact on many countries in Asia because, well, it hurts my heart too much and makes me realize again how helpless we are in the face of a natural disaster of such proportions. (For links to info on relief efforts and status reports from the various affected areas, click here.)

I would like to pass along this request from M. Madharudeen in Kampala, Uganda, who in addition to the below is also currently negotiating with few international airlines for logistical support to transport the donated medicines to Colombo International Airport in Sri lanka.

As you may be well aware that Sri Lanka is been badly hit with the highest number of casualties coming from the region. Over 18,700 people confirmed dead and the number is expected to rise well over 25,000. Millions of people are displaced and are very worried about the secondary infections that might be triggered due to polluted water and environment.



The President has declared a state of emergency and has requested international help.




I kindly request that anyone who is interested in contibuting related medicines and/or water-purifying tablets towards this worthy cause contact me. I will help them to link with the necessary authorities to speed up the process. Drugs should have at least 6-10 months of shelf life. It is also an ideal time to donate drugs instead of paying destruction cost when expired.




I have also requested from the Sri Lankan pharma friends to find out exactly what they need.

Contact: M. Madharudeen, Kampala, Uganda, mediceutix@yahoo.com, Tel : 00256 77 951775, if you can help.

Update from M. Madharudeen“The Sri Lankan Airline (formerly known as Air Lanka) has agreed to airlift goods from their UK offices to Sri lanka. A big salute for their contribution. If one can channel the goods to UK offices it would be easier for the moment to facilitate this objective.

“At the same time a fellow lankan who has come up to sort it out at ground level through the Canadian Relief Foundation in Canada which is deeply engaged in Sri Lanka, Eastern Provice, Trincomalee District.

“Currently I have a donor willing to donate bedding (sheets), towels, clothing, toothbrushes, OTC drugs like aspirin and disenfectants, etc., from the Philladelphia, United States.

“Thanks to all of you, we shall work on this to see many lives are saved and rehabilitated.”

Sue again: Please e-mail me if you’d like a list of the drugs and equipment that are most needed.