Evolving and Modernizing the Physician-Device Rep Relationship in Pain

[drusso]

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A lot of doctors are closer to their reps than their own families and rely on them for personal, professional, and clinical advice. One part Bruh, one part confidant, and one part professional matchmaker/handler--but does the relationship end when the expense accounts run dry? How should the relationship between MD/DO and rep evolve beyond just being another guy/gal selling a gizmo?

 

[nvrsumr]

Weak sauce if you need to pay people to be your friend

 

[Agast]

This seems like another way of saying pain physicians have unhappy home lives

 

[Orin]

Truth be told, seasoned reps have seen more cases than most clinicians have ever thought about doing.

For things like SCS, they've also followed along closer and seen the results or lack thereof. It's difficult these days as most of us can't even program most devices or understand the parameters being used to program the SCS.

The key understanding is that reps do have their incentives/motives for things, but that doesn't mean they're evil or useless.

 

[drusso]

Truth be told, seasoned reps have seen more cases than most clinicians have ever thought about doing.

For things like SCS, they've also followed along closer and seen the results or lack thereof. It's difficult these days as most of us can't even program most devices or understand the parameters being used to program the SCS.

The key understanding is that reps do have their incentives/motives for things, but that doesn't mean they're evil or useless.

Plus a lot of new grads rely on them for brokering introductions and getting jobs, side gigs, etc.

 

[Ducttape]

new grads need to keep them at arms length. get their "help" but do not rely on them.



reps represent their company and the financial interests of company. they are friendly but they are really not your friends.

search inside your memory. what has happened in the past when you start talking up a competitor's product. do they say "wow, thats interesting, cool! im happy you are using their device!" or "let me remind me about my product..."



i agree that reps arent evil or useless, but one should not be deceived in to thinking that the reps are here for the goodness of patients or sans underlying financial COI for themselves or their company.

 

[drrosenrosen]

We have financial conflicts of interest w/r/t our patients as well, don't we? If SCS paid like trigger points, how many people would suddenly think they weren't that great anymore? We've seen it happen with pumps already.
Now, I agree that we should keep reps at arms length, and be mindful of their COI. I always have. But just because someone has a potential financial COI, doesn't mean that is insurmountable

 

[drusso]

new grads need to keep them at arms length. get their "help" but do not rely on them.



reps represent their company and the financial interests of company. they are friendly but they are really not your friends.

search inside your memory. what has happened in the past when you start talking up a competitor's product. do they say "wow, thats interesting, cool! im happy you are using their device!" or "let me remind me about my product..."



i agree that reps arent evil or useless, but one should not be deceived in to thinking that the reps are here for the goodness of patients or sans underlying financial COI for themselves or their company.

I'm not certain that it is a conflict of interest. Maybe better to call it a confluence of interest. All people in the doctor-patient-device rep relationship want what right for the patient.

“Confluence, Not Conflict of Interest: Name Change Necessary”

Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released an editorial entitled “Confluence, Not Conflict of Interest: Name Change Necessary.” In it, the authors make a number of important points about certain problems with the

www.policymed.com

“Confluence of interest represents a complex ecosystem that requires the development of a uniform approach to minimize bias in clinical research across the academic sector,” the authors conclude. “Such a policy must be at once simple and accessible, capturing the complexity of the relationships while being sufficiently flexible at the individual level not to intrude on the process of innovation.”

 

[SeniorWrangler]

But surely MedWidget, Inc. is mostly interested in how many SpineWidgets (TM) you can implant, and not in, y’know, anything else?
That doesn’t mean Joe Bloggs the Widget rep is a bad guy, just that he knows how they calculate his Christmas bonus.

 

[DrSpine]

Reps can be great, or they can be terrible. Have a great relationship with them, but they are salesmen and looking to SELL YOU a product. How many times do you see a device rep who is enthusiastic for one procedure, quits that job and goes to another medical device company, and then begins pushing that next product as the greatest thing since sliced bread? Be cautious with everything you hear, think as a Physician, understand they don't know much, and work closely with them knowing all this. You'll be fine.

 

[Ducttape]

I'm not certain that it is a conflict of interest. Maybe better to call it a confluence of interest. All people in the doctor-patient-device rep relationship want what right for the patient.

“Confluence, Not Conflict of Interest: Name Change Necessary”

Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released an editorial entitled “Confluence, Not Conflict of Interest: Name Change Necessary.” In it, the authors make a number of important points about certain problems with the

www.policymed.com

“Confluence of interest represents a complex ecosystem that requires the development of a uniform approach to minimize bias in clinical research across the academic sector,” the authors conclude. “Such a policy must be at once simple and accessible, capturing the complexity of the relationships while being sufficiently flexible at the individual level not to intrude on the process of innovation.”

the context is different.

in the situation that they wrote the article, it was on the interactions between inventers and academia.

in the situation of a drug rep, there is not the same interactions. it is purely financial with no interest in innovation or invention on one side.

All people in the doctor-patient-device rep relationship want what right for the patient.

show me a device rep that focuses on this, and ill show you a rep that is not meeting his quarterly quota.