HSS 2321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 38: Postgraduate Education, Peptic Ulcer, Continuing Education

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HSS 2321
• Professor: Kirsti Bissada

Document Summary

The number of visits to a physician has a strong tie to the number of prescriptions given. There are large differences in rates of prescription from doctor to doctor. The rate of inappropriate prescribing ranges from 17% to 43%. Doctors receive much of their information about drugs from pharmaceutical companies. Commercial sources of information (such as drug advertising and pharmaceutical sales reps) have a significant i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)e o(cid:374) do(cid:272)tors(cid:859) pres(cid:272)ri(cid:271)i(cid:374)g ha(cid:271)its. The pharmaceutical industry financially supports: medical conferences, clubs in medical schools and hospitals, continuing education events. It also provides numerous gifts to physicians including drug samples, wall charts and posters, pen sets, and notepads. Other fa(cid:272)tors that i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)e do(cid:272)tors(cid:859) pres(cid:272)ri(cid:271)i(cid:374)g ha(cid:271)its i(cid:374)(cid:272)lude their le(cid:448)el of (cid:373)edi(cid:272)al edu(cid:272)atio(cid:374), k(cid:374)o(cid:449)ledge of pharmaceuticals, and type of practice. Canadian market: 50% of all prescriptions written by gps are for about 27 different medications. Pharmacists have considerable discretionary influence in making recommendations both to doctors and to individuals.