Quack
Drug Reps
2001
Doctors have a love-hate relationship with drug reps. On the one hand, we sympathize with people just doing their jobs. We like getting free lunches, and hell, we always need more pens. The greatest thing about them is the fact that they give us free samples of their medications so that we can give them to our poorer patients. I myself saw a doctor hand an elderly patient $300 worth of amiodarone samples. That's two month's worth. It was great.
The problem comes when you learn that drug companies are greedy money-making machines. The reps give you "information" about the drugs that come from notoriously biased trials conducted by the drug companies themselves. Also, if you do the math, someone has to be paying for those free lunches. It's not the drug companies. It's the little old ladies.
The worst part about the whole mess is that I can't think of a good way out of it. I guess the best way is to accept only free samples from them. No pens, no pamphlets, and....ohmygod...no free lunches. Hmmm... maybe I can wait to do that until I'm out of school....