(Press-News.org) BOSTON (June 13, 2012)—We've all seen them in the waiting room of the doctor's office—pens, notepads, magnets, and clipboards adorned with the logos of brand-name drugs. These freebies may seem inconsequential, but a large and compelling body of evidence shows that even these small gifts may influence which drug a doctor prescribes.
"What most people haven't seen is many of the other giveaways that pharmaceutical and medical-device companies routinely provide to doctors, ranging from elaborate meals in local restaurants to expensive resort travel in the form of continuing medical education. Some companies spend more money on advertising their products than on research and development on new products, and prescribing physicians are their most promising target for promotional activities," said Marcia Boumil, MA, MS, JD, LLM, associate professor in the department of public health and community medicine and assistant dean, conflict of interest administration, at Tufts University School of Medicine.
As a result, many states have enacted laws limiting marketing practices by pharmaceutical companies, but are these laws constitutional? In an article, published in the current issue of the Journal of Health & Biomedical Law, Boumil examines whether these laws may violate the First Amendment in light of a recent Supreme Court precedent (Sorrell v. IMS Health, Inc.).
"These pharmaceutical gift laws are controversial but work to protect patients and lower healthcare costs by creating an environment in which doctors can make treatment decisions without undue influence," said Boumil. "Despite the intent and value of these laws, courts might now find they violate the First Amendment because the states might not be able to prove that the laws serve a clear and compelling state interest."
Sorrell v. IMS Health, Inc. was a 2011 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down a Vermont law preventing drug companies from purchasing prescriber-identified prescription data, a process known as data mining, and using it for marketing purposes, such as planning a marketing pitch to a particular physician based on the physician's prescribing habits.
The Supreme Court examined the case with a heightened level of scrutiny because the Vermont law prohibited pharmaceutical companies from using the information to enhance their marketing efforts, yet did not restrict researchers, journalists, and insurance companies from using the same information for their benefit. The Court held that a law which prohibits data mining for some purposes but not others is inherently suspect.
The Supreme Court decision determined that the law also violated First Amendment protections because Vermont had not clearly established evidence of a legitimate state interest for regulating commercial speech, although Vermont asserted that the law protected medical privacy, reduced health care costs, and safeguarded public health.
In light of the Supreme Court's willingness to apply this heightened standard of judicial scrutiny to state laws restricting commercial speech, which is endemic to state regulation, it is no longer clear that the pharmaceutical gift laws enacted in approximately 25 states would withstand a constitutional challenge, Boumil said. She noted that that the Vermont law, designed to diminish conflicts of interest in medicine, might have been more carefully crafted.
"If this same degree of scrutiny were applied to state pharmaceutical gift laws, states may be required to prove that these laws serve a clear and compelling state interest using hard data—no easy task," she continued.
"The regulation of pharmaceutical giveaways and some marketing approaches, while important to minimize undue influence in the selection of drug choices, is now uncertain if a constitutional challenge is brought," Boumil added. "While the legality of state restrictions is being debated, hospitals, academic institutions, and the pharmaceutical industry itself can work to create their own policies that protect patients and minimize healthcare costs."
Boumil is also director of the Master of Public Health/Juris Doctor joint degree program at Tufts University School of Medicine and Northeastern University School of Law.
###
Boumil, M. Journal of Health and Biomedical Law. 2012 (June); 8(2)."Pharmaceutical gift laws and commercial speech under the first amendment in the wake of Sorrell v. IMS Health, Inc."
About Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in innovative medical education and advanced research. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, biomedical sciences, special combined degree programs in business, health management, public health, bioengineering and international relations, as well as basic and clinical research at the cellular and molecular level. Ranked among the top in the nation, the School of Medicine is affiliated with six major teaching hospitals and more than 30 health care facilities. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School undertake research that is consistently rated among the highest in the nation for its effect on the advancement of medical science.
END
President Obama's health care law has consistently been attacked by GOP officials throughout recent years, but now, Democrats and Republicans may be acting against it together. According to an article in The Washington Times a law could be passed in January that calls for a 2.3 percent tax increase "on the sales of manufacturers that produce x-rays machines, medical monitors, life-support equipment and other devices." If the repeal goes forward it will mark the 30th GOP attempt to "poke holes" in Obama's health care initiatives. Many experts believe, ...
DURHAM, N.C. -- No matter how much time you've spent training your brain to multitask by playing "Call of Duty," you're probably no better at talking on the phone while driving than anybody else.
A study by the Visual Cognition Laboratory at Duke University wanted to see whether gamers who have spent hours in front of a screen simultaneously watching the map, scanning doorways for bad guys and listening to the chatter of their fellow gamers could answer questions and drive at the same time. The finding: not so much.
"It doesn't matter how much you've trained your ...
'Modern' fathers have been around for far longer than we think, but they have only recently started to change nappies according to research from the University of Warwick.
In a new paper published on the History & Policy website today, Dr Laura King from the University of Warwick's Centre for the History of Medicine said the assumption that fathers have only become more involved in looking after their children over the past 20 years is not true. However, statistics show it has taken longer for dads to get to grips with dirty nappies.
Figures from a 1982 study showed ...
Throughout the United States, there are 79 people serving sentences of life without parole for crimes they committed when they were 14 years old or younger. Many have decried this practice, arguing that it is unjust to impose such harsh punishments on the acts of children, many of whose brains were not fully developed enough to appreciate the consequences of their actions.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws allowing the death penalty as punishment for juvenile crimes and abolished life without parole for non-homicide juvenile offenses. However, in many ...
Wolozin's group also pursued the observation that some of the RNA binding proteins bind to tau protein, and tested whether one of these proteins, TIA-1, might contribute to the disease process. Previously, scientists have demonstrated that TIA-1 spontaneously aggregates in response to stress as a normal part of the stress response. Wolozin and his colleagues hypothesize that since TIA-1 binds tau, it might stimulate tau aggregation during the stress response. They introduced TIA-1 into neurons with tau protein, and subjected the neurons to stress. Consistent with their ...
Each year in the United States about $135 billion is spent in training employees — but those billions do not always improve the workplace because the skills often do not transfer to the actual job.
"Learning is a way of life in organizations," says Eduardo Salas, a psychological scientist from the University of Central Florida. "Everyone gets training. But what matters? What works? What influences learning and skill acquisition?"
In a new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Salas and ...
Although mammograms are often a life-saving tool for women, according to a study published the Annals of Internal Medicine, the frequency that women undergo these tests should be customized to each patient -- based on the woman's age, breast density and her family's history of breast cancer.
Although the American Cancer Society suggests that women begin receiving annual mammograms at age 40, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces advises women to be screened every other year from age 50 to 74, John Schousboe of Park Nicollet Health Services in Minneapolis and his ...
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT engineers have developed a fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers human cells: glucose. This glucose fuel cell could be used to drive highly efficient brain implants of the future, which could help paralyzed patients move their arms and legs again.
The fuel cell, described in the June 12 edition of the journal PLoS ONE, strips electrons from glucose molecules to create a small electric current. The researchers, led by Rahul Sarpeshkar, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, fabricated the fuel cell ...
(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health (BUSM, BUSPH), along with the VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School, have found inpatient medical procedures increased more among non-elderly, lower- and medium- income populations, Hispanics and whites, after health care reform went into effect in Massachusetts. The findings, which currently appear in Medical Care, suggest improved access to outpatient care for vulnerable subpopulations since health care reform took effect.
The 2006 Massachusetts health reform implementation ...
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, reports that it received fewer reports of injuries from companies in 2011. It is unclear if this is due to an actual drop in injuries or because more companies are failing to report injuries involving their products.
CBS News reports that 10 companies were fined more than $4 million in 2011, up substantially from the previous year's two companies. Companies tend to be less than enthusiastic when voluntarily reporting injuries, but the reports are required by law.
Some companies may claim they did not report certain ...
