CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS SUCCESSFULLY URGE USE OF ECONOMIC STIMULUS FUNDS TO EDUCATE DOCTORS & PATIENTS ON FULL RANGE OF DRUG TREATMENTS

WASHINGTON - Today U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), and House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) commended the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for directing $29.5 million in economic stimulus funds to 9000 programs nationwide that will put straightforward, unbiased information about the wide range of available prescription drug treatments - known as "comparative effectiveness research" - into the hands of America's physicians and their patients. Last week, AHRQ announced that it is seeking proposals to fund what are known as "academic detailing" programs, which provide physicians and other prescribers with an objective source of information on all treatments, including prescription drugs, based on independent, scientific research. 

 

The Senators and Congressmen have continually urged AHRQ to use part of the stimulus funds they received for academic detailing programs.  Last year, they were joined by several other high-ranking and influential Congressional colleagues in introducing the Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act of 2009 (S. 767/H.R. 1859) to fulfill the same purpose.

 

"By providing physicians with thorough, independent research on all the drugs available to them, academic detailing programs improve the quality of health care and reduce the cost of prescription drugs in America," said Senator Kohl.  "AHRQ's support of these programs is a worthwhile investment."

 

"AHRQ's investment in academic detailing programs will help doctors make the right decisions for their patients." Senator Durbin said.  "When doctors are provided guidance by unbiased health professionals armed with objective research, they are more likely to purchase the best drug for the patient instead of the best deal for the pharmaceutical company."

 

"The better informed doctors are about prescription drugs the better care their patients will receive," said Congressman Pallone. "The advances in medicine and the development of new drugs can improve care but they should be accompanied with unbiased information. This program will improve medical care and help reduce costs."

 

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine projected that for every dollar spent on academic detailing, two dollars can be saved in drug costs. When doctors are better informed about the full range of drugs available on the market, they are more likely to prescribe the most effective treatment, as opposed to the latest brand-name blockbuster drug. The result is also lower health care costs, as generic drugs are more likely to be prescribed. Last year, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an editorial underscoring the need for physician access to unbiased research about the drugs available on the market.

 

Currently, pharmaceutical sales representatives are one of the most common ways doctors learn about new drugs on the market, and evidence has shown that interaction with them can impact doctors' prescribing patterns. At an Aging Committee hearing on academic detailing in March 2008, a former sales representative for the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly shared with the committee his experiences as a drug detailer and discussed the techniques sales representatives employ when marketing drugs to doctors. Other witnesses, including Dr. Jerry Avorn from Harvard's School of Medicine, outlined the concept of academic detailing, shared success stories from state and international programs already underway, and discussed both the documented cost savings of academic detailing programs and how patients stand to benefit when doctors have access to unbiased information.

 

The Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act of 2009 (S. 767) was introduced in April by Kohl, Durbin, then-Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).  They were joined by Waxman, Pallone, House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA), and Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), who introduced the House companion bill, H.R.1859.

 

The Pew Prescription Project has conducted numerous studies on the efficacy of academic detailing programs and has endorsed S. 767 and H.R. 1859. Allan Coukell, its director, said, "The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has taken an important step toward putting accurate, useable information in the hands of doctors. Academic detailing is a proven approach to physician education, in which trained pharmacists, nurses and other medical practitioners meet one-on-one with prescribers to present objective summaries of the best available medical research. These educational visits provide doctors with an alternative to the information provided by pharmaceutical industry sales representatives. A number of states and health plans already operate academic detailing programs, which research has shown are impactful, cost-effective and popular with participating physicians."

 

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