www.nofreelunch.org

TAKE THE CAGE

Have you ever prescribed CELEBREX? Annoyed by people who complain
about drug lunches and free gifts? Is there a medication to go on the
pen you're using right now?

Do you drink your morning eye-opener out of a Lipitor coffee mug?

If you answered YES to 2 or more of the above you may be drug-company
dependent!

Don't despair...

No Free Lunch: Slide presentation
The physician-pharmaceutical industry relationship
http://www.nofreelunch.org/nofreelunchweb4/index.htm

Physicians (and other medical personnel)
Take the Pledge
https://ironclad.secure-orders.net/nofreelu/pledge.htm

"No Free Lunch is initiating its "Drug Free Practitioners" Listing.
This listing  will be made up of health care providers who have
pledged to be "Drug company free," that is, free of drug company money
and influence in their clinical practice, teaching, and research."

New and noteworthy: Books for Xmas:
http://www.nofreelunch.org/whatsnew.htm

Pharmaceutical Facts
The "Research-based" pharmaceutical industry spends more on marketing
and administration than it does on research and development.
http://www.nofreelunch.org/factsfallacies.htm

Pharmaceutical samples:
Personal use of drug samples by physicians and office staff
http://www.nofreelunch.org/requiredsamples.htm

Medical students: Things you can do
Here are some things medical students can do:  

·        Organize a No Free Lunch activity at your school.  Whether
it's through other student organizations interested in this issue
(e.g., AMSA) or as a No Free Lunch chapter, we will be happy to help
out with any activity ideas and provide resources! (and of course,
pens, buttons, and coffee mugs!)

·        The American Medical Student Association's  (AMSA) PharmFree
Campaign aims to educate and train its members to interact
professionally and ethically with the pharmaceutical industry, and the
PharmFree webpages contain information particularly useful for
students.  Join this campaign!

·        Host speakers (or speak yourself!). We can provide the
speakers, speaker kits, and other presentation materials.

·        Hold "Pen Amnesty Days." Students and physicians can exchange
their drug company pens for No Free Lunch pens (no questions asked, of
course). Remove those drug company pens from circulation, spread our
message, raise consciousness.

·        Run "Pledge Drives." Encourage students and physicians to
take "The Pledge" and become drug-company free. And of course, take
the pledge yourself!

·        Set up a No Free Lunch booth. Anytime there's anything
happening with booths (best of all, drug company booths!) and even
when there's not.  Exchange pens and ideas, get pledges, have fun.
We'll provide the pens (and t-shirts for booth workers).

·        Talk. Is this issue currently part of your medical school
curriculum? If not, talk to course directors (Pharmacology, Ethics,
"Introduction to the Patient," etc.) about introducing it. We have
lots of curricular materials to facilitate this.  It is imperative
that this issue is addressed before students start clinical rotations,
where chances are they will experience first-hand the temptations of
pharmaceutical industry fruit.

·        Find out if pharmaceutical companies provide financial
support for medical student activities/ organizations at your medical
school.  If so, organize a discussion to address the relationship
between pharmaceutical companies and medical students.

·         Become a No Free Lunch Member, and make our voice louder!

·         Help! For students who are interested and have a little bit
of free time, there are opportunities to help out with No Free Lunch
operations. Contact us!

·        Role model. Unfortunately, physicians have served as rather
poor role models for students and trainees. This is an opportunity for
students to turn the tables and role model for their teachers: Ask
(respectfully, gently, naively) about your attendings' or preceptors'
acceptance of gifts, about whether they think it influences their
behavior, about what they think their patients think about it. As a
medical student (innocent, idealistic), you have unique power in this
regard, and they might just listen to you—Give it a try!  To those old
fogeys who are still getting their information from industry reps,
tell them about computers, the World Wide Web, and the many ways
physicians (and students) can obtain unbiased, accessible drug
information efficiently and quickly.  Maybe they'll even thank you for
it!

Some non-industry sources of drug information:  

·         Medical Letter  (U.S)  

·         Therapeutics Initiative (CA)  

·         Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin  (UK)