Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36698193›Full record

ArticleJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2023

Community physicians' attitudes towards meetings with representatives of pharmaceutical companies: a pilot study.

Amit Koplovitz, Tamar Freud, Roni Peleg

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact, top 99% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 0 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Amit KoplovitzFaculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Tamar FreudDepartment of Family Medicine, Siaal Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 84105, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Roni PelegDepartment of Family Medicine, Siaal Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 84105, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Pelegr@bgu.ac.il.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4855-2141
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev · IL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMarketing by pharmaceutical companies has become an increasingly controversial issue for the medical community and the public. This controversy stems from the potential influence that pharmaceutical companies can wield through marketing on the medical community. This study assesses community physicians' attitudes towards pharmaceutical companies and their representatives to get a better understanding of how their activities affect daily work in community clinics.

methodsA cross-sectional anonymous questionnaire-based study of 170 community physicians in southern Israel was conducted via convenience sampling. The questionnaire was designed to assess physicians' attitudes about the nature of their relationships with representatives of pharmaceutical companies and possible associations with physicians' demographic and professional profiles. The questionnaire was distributed, at weekly staff meetings in the study clinics, to a convenience sample of physicians, who agreed to participate in the study.

resultsMost physicians did not have an extreme attitude on interactions with representatives of pharmaceutical companies. Interestingly, while they thought that pharmaceutical companies play an important role in medical progress, they did express concern regarding the risk of misleading information. While they believed that interactions between physicians and representatives of pharmaceutical companies had a negative effect on the clinic workflow, they were not in favor of prohibiting such interactions. Physicians who graduated from medical schools in Israel held a less sympathetic position towards these interactions.

conclusionThe anticipated heterogeneous attitudes of community-based physicians on interactions with representatives of pharmaceutical companies reflect an inherent complex relationship, with aspects that are specific to the Israeli medical field. Interestingly, physicians trained in other countries than Israel also have divergent attitudes, further affecting the socio-cultural impact on practitioner's attitudes towards this intricate and often politicized topic. Open professional dialogue and targeted educational programs on the physician-pharmaceutical relationship, with more explicit regulation, could potentially ease the discomfort experienced by physicians, especially in the Israeli context and result in a clearer framework of interaction that would leverage the potential advantages while accounting for ethical and regulatory pitfalls.

Indexed as

Community physiciansConflict of interestMarketingPharmaceutical companiesRepresentatives of pharmaceutical companies

Identifiers

PMID36698193
PMCPMC9876407
OpenAlexW4317951616

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.