What Do MDs Tell Patients About Their Rx … with only 99 seconds?

As part of a new study mentioned on The Doctor Weighs In, it shows that physicians spend an average of 10 minutes and 10 seconds with patients in an average visit.  Of that, 99 seconds (or 16% of the time) they are discussion prescriptions.  The big question is what are they discussing.

A 2006 study showed the following:

74 percent of the doctors mentioned the trade or generic name of the medicine, and 87 percent stated its purpose. Sixty-six percent said nothing about how long to take the medicine, 45 percent did not say what dosage to take and 42 percent failed to mention the timing or frequency of doses. Physicians mentioned adverse side effects only 35 percent of the time.

Of course, research on the physician and patient dialogue around prescriptions should also include looking at these studies:

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1824770/
• http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/pressreleases/nat/2002/091702depression.html
• http://aetcnec.ucsf.edu/evaluation/Schillinger.Health.Literacy.04.pdf

That is asking a lot of the money spent by the manufacturers on the physicians.

Detailing to physicians, nurse practitioners, and physicians’ assistants cost $12 billion, accounting for more than half of that promotional spending (see Figure 1). Drug companies spent another $3.4 billion sponsoring professional meetings and events and about $0.4 billion placing advertisements in professional journals. Pharmaceutical manufacturers spent the rest of their promotional budgets, $4.7 billion in 2008, on direct-to-consumer advertising.