drjohnkasanders

Laws never stopped big companies or employers that wanted a job done...

Oncologist. But 'cancer doctor' is a term more people would know instead of 'oncologist'

I am interested to learn about the case with the knockoff having harmful effects. Could you guide me in the right direction?

I'd just like to add that after chatting to some pharma. reps (who coincidentally are VERY well spoken, no doubt they've received training in this) that have told me if they can get even just 1 patient on their life long drug (as seems to be the trend for pharmacy research) , it'll more than pay off for the free lunch they bought you.

In reply to Joe (the reply button appears disabled for me). Yes doctors, as with professionals in other fields are encouraged to keep up to date with the literature.

However they're exquisitely busy people, and no one is paying them to spend the time to keep up to date. Sure, there are programs that encourage it (usually called 'Continuing Medical Education') but they're often very weak, easily ignored and there is a lot of pushback by doctors themselves against them). If you take a look at the volume of information coming out every day, coupled with the fact most of the papers just plain suck, you'll realise how it's pretty much impossible to stay afloat.

Ill be frank as well (junior dr here). They buy you lunch weekly, often for the whole establishment (your practice, the hospital, etc.). In the ye olde days they erherm..'sponsored' vacations for doctors to for example, Hawaii. It could be like a 1 week vacation, where they'd require you to spend half a day learning about their drug and going through their marketing spiel with you. In return they'd host your flights, accomodation and food (trust me the food is good).