Marianas Eye: “Why we doctors continue to attend industry sponsored CME luncheons just to listen to these medical whores is unknown. Oh, wait, it actually is known. We’re such a cheap lot, we’ll do anything for a free lunch, as long as the salad has nice crisp croûtons.”
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It is interesting to see just who attends industry-sponsored dinners. Doctors of a certain age or wealth rarely attend such events.
I no longer attend such events, CME or not. Why? Well for starters, I am a family man, and value time at home more than with marketeers. My body can no longer sustain the calories or fat of, say, a big steak dinner without gaining circumference. And the wine is always of the sub-par variety, guaranteed to gift one with a headache. Add the fact that the food is almost always disappointing if you have to partake of a set menu and it becomes a less than enjoyable experience.
And if I have to listen to one more doctor tell me how Restasis at $100/month is a good plan for all dry eye patients, I think I will start to ask my patients what is more important to them, a gallon of gasoline or a vial of Restasis, a Starbucks latte or a vial of Restasis, feeding a dozen hungry children in El Salvador or a vial of Restasis? That’s right, I will let them decide. What really irks me is when the rep tell the doctor he is doing his patients a favor by saving them money when prescribing Restasis because the copay is less than buying OTC artificial tears. Until patients are responsible for more of the cost of their medical care, the buck will continue to be passed like so much flatulence.
I don’t get it. I figured out years ago that even from the perspective of being a cheap whore whose hourly earnings are at the lower end of the doctor pay scale, it makes no sense at all to go to these things for the food.
It could only make sense if the information were reliable and useful, which it isn’t. Better to be ignorant and know that I don’t know than to be brain washed with slanted information.
The return on time for the free food is paltry. Far better to work another hour and then get the food I like at the table of my choice with people I like.
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