Big Pharma is employing nurses to review charts, a precursor to pushing brand name medications:
One recent 18-month program sponsored by Pfizer and the National Health Service added nurses to hospitals to discuss management of chronic health conditions with patients. Sanofi-Aventis is paying nurses to train doctors’ office staffs how to identify patients at risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Last fall, the British drug trade group temporarily suspended Merck after ruling that a company program in which nurses paid by Merck reviewed patients’ charts inappropriately promoted Merck’s blood pressure drug Cozaar.
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{ 1 comment }
Did the patients consent to having these nurses review these charts?
This is the sort of thing that is a complete violation of Hippocratic ethics and traditional obligations of confidentiality under common law, but are eroded here under HIPPA and apparently in Britain as well.
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