Following Success of DTC Drug Advertising, DTC Radiation Advertising? What? | Reporting on Health
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Seventeen játékok years after direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising was instituted in the US, 70 percent of adults and 25 percent of children are on at least one prescription játékok drug. Topping the adult pill category is--surprise!-- antidepressants which are used by an astounding one in four women between 50 and 64 . Topping the child pill category is--another surprise!--ADHD meds, though kids increasingly take blood pressure, diabetes and insomnia meds too. (Babies játékok are actually given GERD medicine for spitting up.) Twenty percent of the population is now on five or more prescription medications. Ka-ching. DTC advertising has done two pernicious játékok things. It has created a nation of hypochondriacs with depression, bipolar disorder, GERD, Restless Legs, insomnia, seasonal allergies and assorted játékok pain, mood and "risk" conditions and it has reduced doctors to order takers and gate keepers. Thanks to TV drug ads, patients tell doctors what is wrong with them and what pill they need , coupon in hand. Drug company-funded web sites even give patients talking points to use when they see the doctor, lest they don't ring up a sale. Selling prescription drugs like soap makes a mockery of a medical school education. It has created the need to train doctors in "refusal" skills said Richard Pinckney, MD, Professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine at a 2010 Chicago conference attended by medical játékok boards, accrediting agencies and representatives from the AMA, FDA, VA and 23 medical centers. Now the same technique is at play with radiation therapy. For at least two years, direct-to-consumer radiation ads have aggressively promoted "proton therapy" to patients, játékok an expensive new kind of radiation játékok treatment for people with prostate and other cancer that is said to limit radiation exposure to surrounding organs. While proton therapy sounds like a "scientific marvel," writes biotech reporter Luke Timmerman , the evidence of its value is limited so far to brain tumors called medulloblastomas and not other cancers for which it is marketed. There is also a "real problem" with the business model, writes Timmerman. Because a proton center costs $152 million to build and operate, it "creates an incentive for doctors within a network to steer their patients to proton therapy," including cancer patients who may not be appropriate játékok and who may "benefit just as much from an existing, lower-cost alternative." How much more expensive is proton therapy? The average Medicare reimbursement for proton treatment játékok for prostate cancer is about $32,428 versus $18,575 for standard radiation. Other estimates place proton therapy at $50,000 for prostate cancer, twice as much as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) which is also employed to limit radiation exposure to surrounding organs. Is it proton therapy better? Not according to comparative effectiveness studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Patients on the cheaper IMRT therapy had a 34 percent lower risk of gastrointestinal side effects compared to proton therapy. (IMRT was also associated with 22 percent fewer hip fractures and a 19 percent reduced need for further cancer treatment játékok than traditional radiation though there was a greater risk of erectile dysfunction.) Will "Ask Your Doctor" radiation ads sell proton therapy the way they have Lipitor, Nexium, Claritin and Prozac? If patients játékok can be experts on diseases and medication, why can't they be experts on oncology? játékok Or will the medical establishment realize if proton játékok therapy were really superior, ads and patients would not be required to sell it--and pay for the machine.
Deadline játékok Extended to April 18 for 2014 National Health Journalism Fellowship
Martha Rosenberg has shared a blog post Read it.
1 day ago
How can journalists and foundations collaborate to deepen and improve reporting on underserved communities? Our USC Annenberg School of Journalism program in collaboration with The California Endowment, the Wyncote Foundation and Media Impact Funders, convened 75 leaders from both fields.
A project supported by The California Endowment
The Reporting on Health Member Blog
Seventeen játékok years after direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising was instituted in the US, 70 percent of adults and 25 percent of children are on at least one prescription játékok drug. Topping the adult pill category is--surprise!-- antidepressants which are used by an astounding one in four women between 50 and 64 . Topping the child pill category is--another surprise!--ADHD meds, though kids increasingly take blood pressure, diabetes and insomnia meds too. (Babies játékok are actually given GERD medicine for spitting up.) Twenty percent of the population is now on five or more prescription medications. Ka-ching. DTC advertising has done two pernicious játékok things. It has created a nation of hypochondriacs with depression, bipolar disorder, GERD, Restless Legs, insomnia, seasonal allergies and assorted játékok pain, mood and "risk" conditions and it has reduced doctors to order takers and gate keepers. Thanks to TV drug ads, patients tell doctors what is wrong with them and what pill they need , coupon in hand. Drug company-funded web sites even give patients talking points to use when they see the doctor, lest they don't ring up a sale. Selling prescription drugs like soap makes a mockery of a medical school education. It has created the need to train doctors in "refusal" skills said Richard Pinckney, MD, Professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine at a 2010 Chicago conference attended by medical játékok boards, accrediting agencies and representatives from the AMA, FDA, VA and 23 medical centers. Now the same technique is at play with radiation therapy. For at least two years, direct-to-consumer radiation ads have aggressively promoted "proton therapy" to patients, játékok an expensive new kind of radiation játékok treatment for people with prostate and other cancer that is said to limit radiation exposure to surrounding organs. While proton therapy sounds like a "scientific marvel," writes biotech reporter Luke Timmerman , the evidence of its value is limited so far to brain tumors called medulloblastomas and not other cancers for which it is marketed. There is also a "real problem" with the business model, writes Timmerman. Because a proton center costs $152 million to build and operate, it "creates an incentive for doctors within a network to steer their patients to proton therapy," including cancer patients who may not be appropriate játékok and who may "benefit just as much from an existing, lower-cost alternative." How much more expensive is proton therapy? The average Medicare reimbursement for proton treatment játékok for prostate cancer is about $32,428 versus $18,575 for standard radiation. Other estimates place proton therapy at $50,000 for prostate cancer, twice as much as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) which is also employed to limit radiation exposure to surrounding organs. Is it proton therapy better? Not according to comparative effectiveness studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Patients on the cheaper IMRT therapy had a 34 percent lower risk of gastrointestinal side effects compared to proton therapy. (IMRT was also associated with 22 percent fewer hip fractures and a 19 percent reduced need for further cancer treatment játékok than traditional radiation though there was a greater risk of erectile dysfunction.) Will "Ask Your Doctor" radiation ads sell proton therapy the way they have Lipitor, Nexium, Claritin and Prozac? If patients játékok can be experts on diseases and medication, why can't they be experts on oncology? játékok Or will the medical establishment realize if proton játékok therapy were really superior, ads and patients would not be required to sell it--and pay for the machine.
Deadline játékok Extended to April 18 for 2014 National Health Journalism Fellowship
Martha Rosenberg has shared a blog post Read it.
1 day ago
How can journalists and foundations collaborate to deepen and improve reporting on underserved communities? Our USC Annenberg School of Journalism program in collaboration with The California Endowment, the Wyncote Foundation and Media Impact Funders, convened 75 leaders from both fields.
A project supported by The California Endowment
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