The proponents of academic detailing are making another push again. It seems like we’ve been hearing this same drone from Boston for the last 15 years. But now they’ve got Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) and a few other Democrats lined up to push an appropriations bill in Congress. The proponents need more funding to prove their hypothesis doesn’t work. Let me explain.
Prescription Project and Community Catalyst have been claiming there are savings in the Pennsylvania test case of academic detailing, but have been unable to actually demonstrate it. They have produced one “study” which relies on future “accounting projections,” but they cannot quantify any actual savings now. This is the same kind of fuzzy math that has gotten dozens of states into trouble recently as the economy turned sour. And yet the proponents of academic detailing persist in their claims despite the face they have no objective research that is independently verifiable and they were unable to articulate these costs savings during a town hall in Philadelphia back in April. They are long on rhetoric and short on facts.
Ironically, despite the claims of Prescription Project and others, The Independent Drug Information Service (the group that administers the Pennsylvania program) is quite cautious in its assessment of financial savings. In fact, the website takes great pains to carefully avoid making any claims of actual savings to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In press release hyping the program, Robert Restuccia makes sweeping claims about other countries employing academic detailing and the vast sums of money those countries have saved. Incidentally, the Independent Drug Information Service mentions the same thing, but indicates only that other countries have tried the program, but there is no mention of savings.
Harvard’s Dr. Jerry Avorn, the father of academic detailing and the brains behind the Independent Drug Information Service, has admitted under oath in Federal Court that to effectively implement academic detailing it would require billions and billions of dollars. And even then, it is probable that academic detailing will remain an ideal that is unlikely to ever succeed, is unlikely to ever generate any real savings, and is unlikely to ever drive down drug prices. So why do it?
The answer: So Herb Kohl can show his brilliance! If you give people the impression you are actually doing something, it's just as good as actually doing something. Get the AARP crowd to focus on academic detailing so Kohl and the elite club in Washington don't actually have to tackle the major issues facing healthcare.
Hat tip to Pharmalot
