Panel Discussion

Aggressive promotion of blockbuster drugs by the pharmaceutical industry has resulted in many drugs being prescribed that are not the best therapeutic options and that are an excess expense to our overburdened health care system. If physicians could have more evidence-based information on prescribing drugs, it would increase the safety for those using them and result in a substantial savings to our health care system. One way to provide this kind of information to physicians is to send educators to meet with them and provide them with documentation on evidence-based recommendations for prescribing. This approach is sometimes called academic detailing. With provide physicians with evidence-based information on prescribing, the federal government has begun to support academic detailing. An agency funding work in this effort is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In 2009, AHRQ solicited bids for using federal stimulus funds to promote academic detailing. The State of New York Medicaid has also begun funding education of physicians in prescribing medicines. This session will feature presentations on these efforts. The first presentation will outline how the state of New York Medicaid program has gotten one such program underway. The second will a national campaign to help other health plans initiate similar programs.

Session Objectives: Describe how academic detailing programs work, their cost effectiveness, their growth in the United States, and potential federal support for these programs. Public health professionals concerned with safer and more cost effective prescribing of medicines. Describe the characteristics of comparative effectiveness research, federal work supporting it, and how it can be used to support the safer and more cost effective prescribing of medicines.