What a great IDEA!

It looks like D.C. is following in Massachusetts footsteps. Members of the US Senate and the House just introduced the Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act of 2009 (IDEA for short). According to The Prescription Project:

“This law would provide grants to create unbiased educational materials for doctors and grants to train pharmacists and nurses to make educational office visits to doctors with that information, combating the biased commercial information brought by drug reps.”

In other words, a federal academic detailing program. The goal of academic detailing is to close the gap between the best available science and actual prescribing practice, so that each prescription is based on the most current and accurate evidence about efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness and to deliver this information to doctors in an efficient, user-friendly way. It relies on the pharmaceutical industry’s own tactic of office visits to share this unbiased information with prescribers. IDEA, if passed, could offer states – as well as other payers and non-profits who accept no pharmaceutical funding – grants to fund their academic detailing programs.

Massachusetts already has an academic detailing program funded through the Department of Public Health. A doctor and nurse are currently educating providers in Massachusetts’ Community Health Centers on the treatments available for specific medical conditions. This program results in better care for patients and lower health care costs. Studies on Medicaid programs, in Pennsylvania, the UK and Australia indicate that there is, at minimum, a $2 savings for each dollar invested. Sounds like a good deal to us!

We urge the Massachusetts Legislature to include funding for this important program in the budget.
Georgia Maheras