Podcasts about pharmedout

Episode 10 highlights examples of how patient advocacy groups influenced pharmaceutical decisions at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a conversation with health policy researcher, author and activist, Sharon Batt PhD, we explore regulatory decisions on Relyvrio (AMX0035), Avastin (bevacizumab), and Addyi (flibanserin) within the context of our latest report “What Needs to Change at the FDA?Protecting and Advancing Public Health.”Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing. Additional Resources Full Report “What Needs to Change at the FDA? Protecting and Advancing Public Health”: https://georgetown.box.com/s/n87us836fpmdhtcvdaqopyobfwx7bymx  Webinar on “What Needs to Change at the FDA?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g9br3wZW-k&t=11s  Article on “How some drug companies manipulate patient advocates” by Judith Garber: https://lowninstitute.org/how-some-drug-companies-manipulate-patient-advocates/  

Episode 9 features a conversation on opioids with Andrew Kolodny MD. Dr. Kolodny is a leading expert on the opioid crisis and serves as President of Health Professionals for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP). We chat about the opioid epidemic in the US over the years, the covert marketing strategies used to sell opioids, and opioid prescribing guidelines. Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing. Additional Resources PROP's Website: https://www.supportprop.org/ PharmedOut on Opioids: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/advocacy/pharmedout-on-opioids PharmedOut's Journal Article, “Survey of opioid prescribing among dentists indicates need for more effective education regarding pain management” in Journal of the American Dental Association: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34689958/ “Years into an addiction crisis, a med school lecture still minimized opioid risks” by Ed Silverman for STAT News, link: https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2024/02/07/opioid-addiction-pain-nova-southeastern-university-florida/ Fact sheet on opioid marketing: https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/3fqr4f0nl4jnviwrcxhn6muaxqqptgsx Summaries of key articles on opioid marketing: https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/xt2rhk3tinq0rqgn9bz2dozm2w4dv84c

Who gets to decide on what it means to have a disease? I posed this question a while back in reference to Alzheimer's disease. I'll save you from reading the article, but the main headline is that corporations are very much the “who” in who gets to define the nature of disease. They do this either through the invention of disease states or, more often, by redrawing the boundaries of what is considered a disease (think pre-diabetes). On today's podcast, we invite Adriane Fugh-Berman to discuss the influence of industry, whether it be pharma or device manufacturers, on healthcare. Adriane founded PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center project that “advances evidence-based prescribing and educates health care professionals and students about pharmaceutical and medical device marketing practices.” I've listened to a lot of Adriane's talks. It is clear to me that she is not anti-medicine or even anti-pharma but is very much against both the visible and hidden influences that pharma and device manufacturers use to sell their products.  This could be through overt marketing like advertisements or drug rep visits, or more covert measures like unrestricted grants to advocacy organizations, funding of CME, paying “key opinion leaders,” or the development of “disease awareness campaigns.” So take a listen and dont worry, while GeriPal podcasts offer CME, we never take money from industry. By: Eric Widera      

Episode 8 features an interview with Shahram Ahari MD, an emergency medicine physician and former drug rep, that explores the world of pharmaceutical samples. We chat about why samples are the most important marketing tactic drug companies have, how samples are used to manipulate prescribing choices, and discuss whether or not drug samples should be banned. Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing. Additional Resources PharmedOut fact sheet on drug samples: ⁠https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/y51hkdvu2dju9sv26fjcc976ivlvwtkj Summaries of key articles on the topic of drug samples: ⁠https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/3052cjlgv9thfw0qf3k9fkuyio978mbr PharmedOut's paper “Pharmaceutical marketing: the example of drug samples.” Link: https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-022-00479-z PharmedOut's paper “Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors.” Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040150 PharmedOut's paper “Why lunch matters: Assessing physicians' perceptions about industry relationships.” Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/chp.20081 Dr. Ahari's op-ed in The Washington Post “I was a drug rep. I know how pharma companies pushed opioids.” Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-was-a-drug-rep-i-know-how-pharma-companies-pushed-opioids/2019/11/25/82b1da88-beb9-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html

Episode 7 features an interview with Peter Whitehouse MD, PhD and Lon Schneider MD, MS exploring dementia and mild cognitive impairment. We chat about the medicalization of normal aging, the overdiagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, problems with new drugs and tests for Alzheimer's disease, and how to prevent dementia.  Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing. Additional Resources PharmedOut resources on Alzheimer's and Mild Cognitive Impairment: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/advocacy/alzheimers-and-mild-cognitive-impairment?authuser=0 Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext Making the Case for Accelerated Withdrawal of Aducanumab. Link: https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad220262 Dr. Peter Whitehouse's latest letter to the editor, “Cummings column on Alzheimer treatments skips over a few key things.” Link: https://www.cleveland.com/letters/2023/10/cummings-column-on-alzheimer-treatments-skips-over-a-few-key-things.html American Dementia: Brain Health in an Unhealthy Society by Danny George PhD and Peter Whitehouse MD, PhD. Link: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12394/american-dementia The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis by Peter Whitehouse MD, PhD and Danny George MSc. Link: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312368173/themythofalzheimers

Episode 6 invites Ragen Chastain, activist and author, and Joel Lexchin MD of York University, to discuss myths about weight and health, the hype around Ozempic and Wegovy, and the unclear connection between weight loss and health.  Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing. To learn more about Ragen Chastain and her work, please visit her website: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/ Additional Resources Dances With Fat Monthly Workshop – September: Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor's Office date changed from September 27 to October 11 to avoid overlap with ASDAH's annual meeting. Link: https://danceswithfat.org/monthly-online-workshops/  Books “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia” by Sabrina Strings. Link: https://nyupress.org/9781479886753/fearing-the-black-body/ “Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness” by Da'Shaun L. Harrison. Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670607/belly-of-the-beast-by-dashaun-harrison/ Articles "Semaglutide: a new drug for the treatment of obesity" by Joel Lexchin and Barbara Mintzes. Drug Ther Bull. 2023 Oct 25:dtb-2023-000007. doi: 10.1136/dtb.2023.000007. Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37879878/ “How the ‘It's Bigger Than Me' Campaign Is Harming Fat People for Profit" by Ragen Chastain. Link: https://themighty.com/topic/eating-disorders/its-bigger-than-me-campaign-harms-fat-people-for-profit/  “Weighing the Consequences of Weight-Loss Drugs” by Judy Butler and Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman. Link: https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/104482 Igho J. Onakpoya, Carl J. Heneghan and Jeffrey K. Aronson. Post-marketing withdrawal of anti-obesity medicinal products because of adverse drug reactions: a systematic review. BMC Medicine 2016;14:191. Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27894343/ Prescrire's "Semaglutide (Wegovy°) for excess body weight" Prescrire International 2023; 32 (245): 36-38. Link: https://english.prescrire.org/en/81/168/66102/0/NewsDetails.aspx Please note: the full article is available for subscribers only. PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To donate, please visit: https://sites.google/com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate

Episode 5 invites Tony Scialli MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive toxicologist, to talk about the overuse of gynecologic surgeries – namely hysterectomies and Cesarean sections. Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. For a transcript of this episode, please visit: https://georgetown.box.com/s/1bdbxvaezezlpu0qsm02q3101mmhsi3a To learn more about Dr. Tony Scialli, please visit his website: https://www.scialliconsulting.com/#about Additional Resources The Cultural Warping of Childbirth by Doris Haire. Link: https://www.abebooks.com/9789315600471/Cultural-Warping-Childbirth-Doris-Haire-9315600479/plp Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective. Link: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Our-Bodies-Ourselves/Boston-Womens-Health-Book-Collective/9781439190661 Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. Link: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31385160493&ref_=ps_ggl_17730880232&cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade_10to20-_-product_id=COM9781570671043USED-_-keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1_SkBhDwARIsANbGpFs4ExX1P9YXQFUuTueJytlUy2VdelLMIBU7neywgGu14aYawh1w7hkaArxfEALw_wcB National Women's Health Network. Link: https://nwhn.org/ PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To donate, please visit: https://sites.google/com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate

Episode 4 invites medical anthropologist Sylvia Önder PhD and cultural psychologist Yulia Chentsova Dutton PhD to discuss the differences among disease, sickness and illness and explore the concepts of invented diseases, folk illnesses, and the social value of certain diseases.  Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. For a transcript of this episode, please visit: https://georgetown.box.com/s/ufrrmreu5d26cbfvorbu863uz32qkih9 PharmedOut Conference: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/resources/conferences/2023-conference Bonnie O'Connor. Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions. 1995. Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhvd3 Irving Zola. Medicine as an institution of social control. 1976. Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43618673 Michel Foucault. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/55034/the-birth-of-the-clinic-by-michel-foucault/  PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To donate, please visit: https://sites.google/com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate

Episode 3 of Pharmanipulation invites Gretchen LeFever Watson PhD and Robert Whitaker to question diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and to critique drug treatment of behaviors associated with ADHD. Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. For a transcript of this episode, please visit: https://georgetown.box.com/s/jjei0u9zhtezfqg2i5p83h9per8nzugc For a list of resources and studies mentioned in this episode, please visit: ⁠https://bit.ly/Ep3Resources To learn more about Dr. LeFever Watson, please visit her website: https://drgretchenwatson.com/ To learn more about Robert Whitaker, please visit his website: https://www.madinamerica.com/robert-whitaker-new/  PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To donate, please visit: https://sites.google/com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate

Episode 2 of Pharmanipulation invites Adewole S. Adamson MD, MPP, to discuss the relationship of sun exposure to melanoma, whether sunscreen actually prevents skin cancer, and the overdiagnosis of melanoma. Dr. Adamson is a board-certified dermatologist and an assistant professor in the department of Internal Medicine at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin where he studies skin cancer, evidence-based medicine, and health policy. He is also the Director of the Pigmented Lesion Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin, and he serves as an assistant editor at JAMA Dermatology. Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. For a transcript of this episode, please visit: https://georgetown.box.com/s/3bte8vynpulj33kv3qdtwdabamm2n9xx To learn more about Dr. Adamson, please visit his website: https://adeadamson.com/ Dr. Adamson's paper on Estimating Overdiagnosis of Melanoma Using Trends Among Black and White Patients in the U.S. is available here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/2789995 Dr. Adamson's paper on The Rapid Rise in Cutaneous Melanoma Diagnoses is available here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMsb2019760?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To make a donation please visit: https://sites.google/com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate

Pharmanipulation is a new show created by PharmedOut, dedicated to the topics of evidence-based medicine and industry influence on medical information and public health. PharmedOut is a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. Episode 1 covers pharmaceutical marketing tactics, industry influence on medical knowledge, and invented diseases. Join hosts Caroline Renko and Patricia Bencivenga as they interview Adriane Fugh-Berman MD, the Director of PharmedOut. Links PharmedOut website: https://www.pharmedout.org/ PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To make a donation please visit: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate Pharma Marketing Hub (factsheets and summaries of important topics): https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/resources/pharma-marketing-hub?authuser=0 Patient Grooming Webinar: https://youtu.be/PD_tBqHDouY Transcript to this episode: https://georgetown.box.com/s/qsf6875gd5qgelemtx9urltgaxyl77lx

On MIA Radio this week, MIA’s Gavin Crowell-Williamson interviewed Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). She is the director of PharmedOut, a GUMC research and education project promoting rational prescribing and exposing the effects of pharmaceutical marketing on prescribing practices. Dr. Fugh-Berman leads a team of volunteer professionals that has deeply impacted prescribers’ perceptions of the adverse consequences of industry marketing. She is interested in physician-industry relationships and is an expert witness in litigation regarding pharmaceutical marketing processes. She was formerly a medical officer in the Contraception and Reproductive Health Branch of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Fugh-Berman is the lead author on key articles on physician-industry relationships, including a national survey of industry interactions with family medicine residencies, exposés of how ghostwritten articles in the medical literature are used to sell drugs, an analysis of drug rep tactics, and an explanation of industry publication planning.  She wrote the first chapter on alternative medicine to appear in Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine and authored the first clinicians’ reference text on dietary supplements, the 5-Minute Herb and Dietary Supplement Consult, as well as an evidence-based book aimed at consumers, Alternative Medicine: What Works.  In addition to dozens of articles in peer-reviewed literature, Dr. Fugh-Berman coauthored The Truth about Hormone Therapy and co-edited The Teratology Primer. Dr. Fugh-Berman is the former chair of and currently writes a column for the National Women’s Health Network, a consumer advocacy group that takes no money from industry. Dr. Fugh-Berman has appeared on 20/20, the Today Show, and every major news network.

In a special five-episode mini-season of Working, we talk with people who have had “second acts,” that is people who made a dramatic career pivot at some point in their working lives. Adriane Fugh-Berman was a writer and reproductive-rights activist when she decided to go to medical school. She is now a professor in the department of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University and the director of PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center project that promotes rational prescribing and researches the effects of pharmaceutical and medical device industry marketing on prescribing behavior and therapeutic choices. Fugh-Berman talks about how her earliest work in the family restaurant influenced her current career, the importance of good writing, and why she maintains a garden on the Georgetown campus.  You can email us at working@slate.com. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a special five-episode mini-season of Working, we talk with people who have had “second acts,” that is people who made a dramatic career pivot at some point in their working lives. Adriane Fugh-Berman was a writer and reproductive-rights activist when she decided to go to medical school. She is now a professor in the department of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University and the director of PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center project that promotes rational prescribing and researches the effects of pharmaceutical and medical device industry marketing on prescribing behavior and therapeutic choices. Fugh-Berman talks about how her earliest work in the family restaurant influenced her current career, the importance of good writing, and why she maintains a garden on the Georgetown campus.  You can email us at working@slate.com. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation with Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, Associate Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and Director of PharmedOut. We discuss how the marketing of Androgel uses symptom quizzes to convince men and physicians that "low testosterone" is a medical condition that should be treated. We also discuss the dangerous side effects of testosterone treatment and the similarities with estrogen treatment side effects, which took 20 years to unveil.

Listen NowRecently the French government fined Sanofi $53 million for what it called a smear campaign against a competitor drug manufacturer.   Ranbaxy was fined $500 million, in part, for making false statements to the FDA.   Last year the pharamaceutical industry in sum paid out $5.5 billion to resolve fraudulent marketing practices.  These included $3 billion in fines against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and $762 million against Amgen.   When these settlements were reached eight of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies were under "corporate integrity agreements"  (that require companies to report compliance activities via an independent monitor for five years).   With governments recouping only a portion of drug company profits via these marketing practices many say pharma simply views the fines as a cost of doing business.  (The day the GSK fine was announced, the largest of its kind in history, GSK's stock price actually closed up).During this 23-minute interview Dr. Fugh-Berman discusses the types and pervasiveness of pharmaceutical marketing abuses, the public health consequences thereof, the adequacy of corporate integrity agreements and other efforts that promise to curb abuse (e.g., the Physician Payment Sunshine Act), her views regarding direct to consumer advertising, Pharmed Out's efforts to better educate (or insulate) physicians, patients and other consumers from marketing manipulation.    Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown.   She is also Director of PharmedOut a research and education project that promites rational prescribing and exposes the effect of pharmaceutical marketing on prescribing practices.  Previously, Dr. Fugh-Berman was a medical officer in the Contraception and Reproductive Health Branch of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development at the NIH.  Dr. Fugh-Berman is the former chair of, and currently writes a column for, the National Women's Health Network and she has appeared on 20/20, the Today Show and every major news network.  Dr. Fugh-Berman graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed a family medicine internship in the Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.For information regarding PharmedOut see: http://www.pharmedout.org/. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com