BMJ  2005;331:177 (23 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.177-a

News

Ban advertising in Australian prescribing software, say researchers

Bob Burton

Canberra

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A survey of drug advertisements in Australian prescribing software has found numerous apparent breaches of the drug industry's own voluntary code of conduct. It has led the organisers of the survey to recommend that the Australian government ban the practice of allowing advertisements in such software.

The survey results, published in the Medical Journal of Australia ( 2005;183: 75-9) reviewed the Medical Director software sold by Health Communications Network. Although the software is the only such program in Australia that includes advertisements, the company estimates that its 16 000 users account for about 85% of the country's general practitioners who use computers for prescribing, as well as many specialists.

The survey found that the software included 79 different advertisements for 41 prescription products, only one of which was a generic drug. Of the 60 advertisements that made promotional claims, the study's authors concluded that 95% "appeared" . . . [Full text of this article]

-->
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Drug industry told to disclose details of doctors’ events
Bob Burton
BMJ 2006 333: 278. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Coombes, R. (2006). Hanging doctors out to dry. BMJ 332: 140-140 [Full text]  
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ