Do we really need CME on what doctors should tell patients about the drugs they prescribe? According to this study, I’m guessing the answer is “yes.” From the New York Times writeup of the study:

Although there were variations, depending on the type of medicine prescribed, 74 percent of the doctors mentioned the trade or generic name of the medicine, and 87 percent stated its purpose. Sixty-six percent said nothing about how long to take the medicine, 45 percent did not say what dosage to take and 42 percent failed to mention the timing or frequency of doses. Physicians mentioned adverse side effects only 35 percent of the time…



[Dr. Neil S. Wenger, the senior author on the study], said, “You prescribe a cholesterol-lowering medicine, a medicine that has to be taken for a lifetime, and the person never refills the first prescription. And we wonder why. Now it‘s clear why: we never told them that they were supposed to keep taking it.”

From recent personal experience, I have to say my physician follows the line on this one, not mentioning the name, duration, side effects, or dosage of a drug she prescribed for me. Thank goodness for my pharmacist and the Internet, where I was able to find what I needed to know (from reputable sources—I made sure of that), in a whole lot less time than it took to get said doc to return my call. The really sad thing is that I knew more than she did about it when she did return my call eventually.

A 2004 study by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, published in the November edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, finds that physicians haven’t yet integrated even some of the basic IT tools into their patient care. From the article:

“We are investing tens of billions of dollars in health information technology [IT] nationally, yet the medical profession has been very slow to adopt these tools for clinical care,” says Richard Grant, MD, MPH, of the MGH Division of General Medicine, the paper’s lead author. “We were shocked at the very low rate of basic IT use, particularly among solo-practice and non-academic physicians. I’m sure that the vast majority of them personally use e-mail and the Internet, but most do not have effective ways to integrate these tools into clinical practice.”

Sounds like a good needs assessment to me.

According to the Pharma Compliance Alert, the Office of Inspector General 2007 Work Plan, released last week, found that despite a large number of False Claim Act investigations currently under way, this year has been relatively quiet when it comes to settlements. From the alert:

There are at least 150 investigations underway under the False Claims Act and there have been very few settlements this year. Therefore, the big question on everyone’s mind is whether the many investigations will be concluded in the coming year, and how their outcomes will effect future settlements, says Wayne Pines, president of regulatory services and healthcare at APCO Worldwide. “Each recent settlement, such as the latest Schering-Plough one, has added interesting new dimensions to the settlement landscape–for example, the Schering settlement included an allegation that the company had falsely communicated to the FDA its intentions to correct previous actions, when in fact it did not do so,” Pines says.