PPC Executive Director Discusses Prescriber Education on Maine TV Program  

Hallowell, Maine, December 14, 2009—This week, PPC Executive Director Ann Woloson will appear on the State of the State, the Maine Center for Economic Policy’s weekly television program about Maine issues. The program featuring Woloson’s appearance, “Maine’s Academic Detailing Program Helps Improve Access to Quality Care,” focuses on Maine’s new prescriber education program. Woloson discusses PPC’s involvement in efforts to promote prescriber education/academic detailing in order to counter pharmaceutical companies’ strategies to promote their drugs—even if there are safer, more effective, less expensive products on the market. State of the State will first air on Tuesday, December 15 at 7:30pm with subsequent broadcasts throughout the week.

Maine’s new prescriber education program, known as the Maine Independent Clinical Information Service (MICIS), was launched in August 2009. MICIS is a free, voluntary educational service for Maine prescribers administered by the Maine Medical Association in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services under the direction of a physician-led advisory committee. Other program guests include Kellie Miller, director of public health policy for the Maine Medical Association, and Dr. Noah Nesin, chairperson of the Maine Academic Detailing Advisory Committee. Garrett Martin, economic policy analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP), served as host and moderator.

Woloson’s appearance on the State of the State stems from a collaboration between MECEP and PPC to publish an issue brief on prescription drug policy reform. The issue brief, Choices: A New Kind of House Call Delivers Science Not Sales: Prescription Drug Reform That Works, examines the steps being taken to curb undue industry influence, such as evidence-based prescribing as a means to improve access to safe, effective prescription drugs, while containing costs.

The collaboration grew out of an initiative, funded by the Maine Health Access Foundation, to develop and advocate for policy strategies to help contain sky-rocketing health care costs. Through this initiative, MECEP is working to improve transparency in health care coverage, so consumers can make better informed choices, and PPC is promoting prescribing practices based on science and current research from sources independent of the pharmaceutical industry.

State of the State will air on Tuesday, December 15 at 7:30pm; Wednesday, December 16 at 4pm; and Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, December 17, 19, and 20 at 11:30 am. The program is broadcast on Time Warner Cable Channel  9 in central Maine and Aroostook and Washington counties; Channel  22 in Cumberland and York counties; and Channel 12 in Penobscot County. Other community television stations run State of the State as well; check local listings.