PharmedOut (PhO) is a Georgetown University Medical Center project founded in 2006. It is directed by Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, M.D. The stated mission of the organization is to empower prescribers and other healthcare professionals to identify and counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices.
Contents
This organization provides healthcare professionals with pharma-free continuing medical education (CME) and resources to unbiased drug information. PharmedOut was founded with funds from the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education grant program. Since 2008, PharmedOut has been financially supported by individual donations and largely staffed by a volunteer team of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, scientists, lawyers, students, artists and writers. PharmedOut conducts novel research on the effects of pharmaceutical promotion on prescribers and consumers. Access to publications, educational modules, factsheets, teaching tools, pharma-free continuing medical education (CME) and many other resources can be found on PharmedOut's official site
Mission
History
PharmedOut was founded in 2006 through a grant from the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education grant program. These funds came from a $21-million provision in a settlement between Warner Lambert (a subsidiary of Pfizer) and the Attorneys General of 50 States and the District of Columbia to settle allegations that Warner-Lambert conducted an unlawful marketing campaign for the drug Neurontin that violated state consumer protection laws. Georgetown University Medical Center, with Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman as Principal Investigator, received a $398,000 grant to create educational modules for physicians, factsheets for consumers, and short videos on pharmaceutical marketing practices. PharmedOut has grown into an international watchdog organization that performs research on and creates educational modules about pharmaceutical marketing tactics. It aims at empowering prescribers to identify and counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices.
Speakers
PharmedOut speakers have provided lectures at dozens of Grand Rounds, meetings, conferences, and medical-student events. the organization provides access to hundreds of hours of free, web-based, pharma-free CME. It produces videos providing glimpses behind the scenes through interviews with former and current industry insiders.
Conferences
PharmedOut held its first conference, Prescription for Conflict: Should Industry Fund Physician Education? in June 2010 as s a joint effort between Georgetown University Medical Center, Georgetown University Law Center, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.
Publications
PharmedOut publishes peer-reviewed articles, commentaries, consumer-oriented articles and fact sheets PhO Publications. Articles include Promotional Tone in Reviews of Menopausal Hormone Therapy After the Women's Health Initiative: An Analysis of Published Articles, Haunting the Medical Literature: How Ghostwriting was Used to Sell Menopausal Hormone Therapy, Why lunch matters: assessing physicians' perceptions about industry relationships, and Prescribing Evidence: the Effectiveness and Safety of New Drugs (Editorial).