Medical representatives – Nuisance or help

[Anonymous]

Dear all,

I wish to have everybody’s views on you view medical representatives. Are they a menace , nuisance, irritants, time wasters or help.

How many medical representatives visit your clinic every week. Do you feel that your patients are getting disturbed because of them.

Do you feel that are of any help in clinical practice.

Comments solicited.

Dr. Veerendra Darakh

        

[Anonymous]

In my view medical representatives are an integral part of the routine practice, they help the practitioners to get updated with the new drugs, dosages, brand names, costs etc. I feel they are time savers. i interact with over twenty reps in a month from various companies and discuss and compare the various brands.

        

[Anonymous]

some time back the MR of a leading pharma company gave me tea bags. than next quarter he gave me scents and than he gave me a kind of scent which I had to put in my bathing water.

in the early nineties all the MR’s used to give is just jotting pads and pen stands.

when I questioned them as to why they waste money on such useless paraphernalia they had no answer.

Instead I suggested to them to develop clinically relevant educational materials for clinicians or patient education material for the lay population.

The prices of most of the drugs are well known and do not change very often.I would be the last person to get information about a particular drug from a MR. Nobody can speak against his own company.

veeren

        

[Anonymous]

i feel MRs are of help to the practitioners ., ., they act as updaters of wats new in the market .,. , but then i also agree that every MR would put forth his product as superior to the other ., ., but then it’s up to the practitioner to decide which product to use/recommend after having done a comparitive study of all variants available in the market and use the one which benefite the patient the most and harms the patient the least. ,. , a sincere practitioner should never fall for offers made by the MR in exchange for using his products ., .,

        

[sushantpatel_doc]

If 2 companies are marketing exactly the same drug, how would one know which one is superior?

        

[Anonymous]

the various factors based on which the superiority could be decided are,
1) effectiveness of the drug
2) side effects
3) cost
4) availibity
5) brand reputation, etc

        

[sushantpatel_doc]

How do we know the effectiveness and adverse effects of a particular drug manufactured by a particular company? Can we find it on the net..may be on the company’s website?

        

[ahluwaliatony]

Medical representatives are important as they help us to keep abreast with the latest drugs and innovations of the pharmaceutical industries….I receive about a dozen MR’s every month and receive only drug samples as gifts which I distribute among the patients…..I think medical reps are important and are of great help to the doctor by keeping him update about latest developments in the pharmaceutical industry…..however they should time their visits according to the doctor’s timetable and meet him when he is free and also should not visit the same doc too frquently.

        

[Anonymous]

i agree ., ., i suggest that every practitioner should allot specific hours on specific days for MR visits. , ., MRs should be asked to strictly comply with the timings of visit .,., this avoids any hamper in the appointment schedules ., .,

information regarding the effectiveness and adverse effects of the drug can be procured from the MR who is marketing it ., ,. sample drugs could be taken from him and the same could be prescribed to a few patietns who should be kept under observation through follow ups for signs and symptoms ., ., the internet too could be very helpful in this regards .,. , one must however be as confident as possible that the drug wont cause long time harm to the patient prior to prescribing it for testing it’s effectiveness and adverse effects ,. ,. , also the patient selection for such test should be done thoroughly ruling out risk-associated patients ., ., this may sound as a patient-made-guinea-pig story but then practically speaking only after having used a drug on a few patients can we judge it’s true effectiveness and side-effects . .,

        

[nitink]

warm regards,
i would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to MRs for their support and cooperation for providing me wit samples for my case studies in dept….hats off to their patience an commitment

        

[Anonymous]

practice is becoming extremely competitive with every passing day and to survive and flourish is becoming increasingly difficult. clinical practice now is now walking on a treadmill. you have to keep moving just to be in the same place.

clinicians must accept only those inputs which help him practice better and thereby help the society.

        

[Author]

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