Doctors know their patients are only getting part of the story from public ad campaigns. And that's why patients call, wondering if their statin is good enough to prevent their first heart attack. Ad sequelae take a lot of physician time. Explaining this often involves phone calls, time away from other patients, reviewing drug interactions, suggesting a satisfactory different approach, arranging appropriate follow-up and trying to picture the patient. All because of dust mites.
Time is at a premium in medicine.
Yet, too many physicians have become cynical in and with managed care. Ads advertise new drugs that are often nonformulary and more costly than well-accepted, equally effective, less costly drugs. Drug costs are huge, and formularies can bring them down. So does the order for the replacement on-formulary prescription. Sales of duplicative drugs now account for up to 75 percent of the revenues of large pharmaceutical companies.