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AG Consumer & Prescriber Education Grant Program Summary
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Article Content
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| Background |
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The Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program (CPGP) was created to educate health care professionals about pharmaceutical industry marketing practices and to provide tools for accessing unbiased sources of information about prescription drugs. The program is funded through the 2004 Attorneys General settlement resolving allegations that Warner Lambert violated state consumer protection laws when promoting Neurontin, an epilepsy drug, for off-label uses.
Healthcare providers report that their prescribing behavior is influenced by: drug samples, drug detailers, peer-reviewed journal articles, hospital and HMO formularies, visiting lecturers, CME presentations by experts, peer-pressure, and patient demand.
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| Goals |
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The CPGP awarded 28 grants to fund the development, dissemination and evaluation of curricula to provide practicing health professionals, and those in training, with the critical skills necessary to evaluate prescription drug information and industry marketing techniques, and to apply this knowledge to their own prescribing practices.
The goals of the Prescriber Program are to improve prescribing practices by:
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educating health professionals at all levels of training about the drug development and approval process;
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making health professionals aware of pharmaceutical industry marketing practices and assisting them in developing the knowledge and skills to evaluate those marketing techniques; and
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providing examples and strategies for evaluating existing sources of drug information, and for accessing unbiased sources of information about drugs.
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| Prescriber Information |
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The Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research (OHPR) is one of 24 first-round grant recipients, and has collaborated with the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy to develop a curriculum to educate healthcare professionals to critically view pharmaceutical marketing strategies and to access unbiased evidence-based drug comparisons to encourage quality and cost-effective prescribing. There are three components of the curriculum:
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Academic Detailing: We’ve conducted six academic detailing sessions at Oregon health clinics, presenting individualized or clinic level prescribing reports (using Oregon Medicaid data) and a focused educational message. These materials are related to a series of academic detailing sessions conducted at mental health clinics in Oregon in 2007-2008. We are evaluating the change in prescribing behavior; a report of this activity is forthcoming.
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The lectures were targeted to all prescribing healthcare professionals (MD, DO, NP, PA) in a variety of venues; including hospital grand rounds and professional associations. David Pollack, MD, John Muench, MD, and Richard Wopat, MD developed and presented the lectures.
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Web-based Tutorial: We’ve developed CME accredited modules that cover in greater depth many of the topics presented in the didactic lectures in addition to other topics. The modules are also publicly accessible via the Federation of State Medical Boards OPEN Web Portal and the OSU Drug Use Research and Management Web site.
These online courses are available free of charge to licensed medical prescribers in the nation and may be taken for continuing medical education credit.*
*This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas & Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint sponsorship of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Federation of State Medical Boards Research and Education Foundation. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
To view the modules of other grant participants, please visit the Online Prescriber Education Network (OPEN) website at the Federation of State Medical Boards.
Journal Article
Journal of Ethics and Mental Health
April 2009 - 4 (Sept. Suppl.)
Show Me the Evidence: The Ethical Aspects of Pharmaceutical Marketing, Evidence-Based Medicine, and Rational Prescribing David Pollack, MD; John Muench MD, MPH; Daniel M. Hartung PharmD, MPH
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| Consumer Outreach |
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In addition, a portion of the grant was earmarked for an Oregon Association of Broadcasters (OAB) Public Education Partnership (PEP) through radio and television broadcasting. We developed a consumer-centered communication program that delivers the message of evidence-based research to promote public confidence in lower cost generic drugs and encourage smarter prescription drug purchasing. The Honorable John Kitzhaber, M.D. is the spokesperson for the PSA’s, and each spot is designed to appeal to a certain demographic group. There are three television spots and three radio spots, all close-captioned (TV) and translated into Spanish.
OHPR chose to use the PEP strategy to support its provider education program. Educating providers on the preferred use of evidence-based decision-making when prescribing drugs does nothing to prevent their patients from the emotional appeal of highly advertised alternatives. While we do not want to dispute DTCA claims we want to promote a broader understanding of the effectiveness of lower cost generics.
brand name v. generic drugs (TV spot #1)
generic drugs (TV spot #2)
designer drugs (TV spot #3)
The grant period ends March 31, 2009.
This work was made possible by a grant from the state Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Program which is funded by the multi-state settlement of consumer fraud claims regarding the marketing of the prescription drug Neurontin.
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| Contact |
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