New Resource Supports Evidence-based Education in Effort to Counter Pharmaceutical Industry Representatives

Hallowell, Maine, June 8, 2011—Research and development around academic detailing (unbiased prescriber education) programs has been a hallmark of the work of Prescription Policy Choices (PPC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to improve access to safe, effective, and affordable prescription drugs. PPC’s work to advance the benefits of academic detailing in an effort to counter the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing includes promoting a new initiative, the National Resource Center for Academic Detailing (NaRCAD), which is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. NaRCAD promotes the use of evidence-based medicine by supporting programs of academic detailing. NaRCAD is led by a team of medical researchers that includes Dr. Michael Fischer and Dr. Jerry Avorn, who pioneered the concept of academic detailing.  

Academic detailing is an educational service of sending trained clinicians to physicians’ and other prescribers’ offices in order to present the best available, objective scientific evidence in a given therapeutic area. A number of the academic detailing resources and tools developed by PPC are now highlighted on the NaRCAD website (www.narcad.org). For example, several years ago, PPC facilitated a planning initiative that brought together experts from Australia, Canada, and the US. The result was the development of A Template for Establishing and Administering Prescriber Support and Education Programs. The template provides creative and cost-effective guidance for states looking to support prescriber education programs in the effort to counter the pharmaceutical industry’s use of sales representatives who market new, often more expensive drugs. The development of the template was supported by the Endowment for Health, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts through the Prescription Project, the Maine Health Access Foundation, and the Bingham Program. The template is available for downloading via the NaRCAD website and the PPC website (as part of the Academic Detailing Tool Kit). 

NaRCAD promotes the use of evidence-based medicine by supporting academic detailing programs, including providing organizations with guidance, training, and educational materials in establishing new or expanding academic detailing programs. In addition, NaRCAD supports the networking of organizations interested in academic detailing and other innovative approaches to improving medical care for all Americans.

“NaRCAD is a great resource for states interested in providing prescribers with the best objective information available on which drugs work best, are safest, and are often more affordable,” said PPC Executive Director Ann Woloson. “NARCAD is a much needed and timely resource given efforts to improve access to quality health care and the need to control costs across the country.”