While pharmaceuticals already get population prescription data from pharmacy benefit management firms, shared data from handheld devices would give drug companies a faster, more complete picture of a physician's prescriptions. As drug makers embrace electronic gifts, some have a clear link back to a product. Many groups and clinics, for instance, can better manage their Coumadin patients because of CoumaCare, a software and educational program provided free by the drug's manufacturer, DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company. Most electronic gifts, however, are not related to a particular product. And handheld devices would give physicians access to information on all medications, not just those manufactured by one drug maker.
Organized medicine offers plenty of ethical advice on gifts.
And public demand for lower drug costs have placed gifts to physicians under new scrutiny. Ethicists say that pharmaceutical gifts, even when they benefit patients, erode the public's trust in physicians. But it's still ethically problematic when a company with a direct interest is the source of your funds for patients. The more you yield to the economics, the more you're falling into a business model that undercuts arguments for professionalism. Some physicians are frustrated that the profession has to increasingly rely on handouts.