Industry Pressure

Another way in which the industry exerts pressure on doctors is by offering us a variety of professional services . In one of these services, widely advertised to GPs, a company representative shows the Practice Manager how to use a company disk to "trawl" through the practice database identifying patients with problems which might be treatable with the company's products. When that has been done, a company-sponsored nurse interviews the selected patients and draws up a management plan for the GP, which, if approved by the doctor, attracts a Medicare item number. One of these companies proudly announces that over 65,000 patients were assessed in this way in 2005. What, one may ask, is a pharmaceutical company doing assessing patients? It is surprising that no government or professional body has stepped in to prevent this commercially sponsored program.