Question

Discuss of the questions raising your own opinion and provide examples to support your ideas

1/ What benefits or hospitality may be accepted from pharmaceutical companies?

2/What issues do doctors face when prescribing medication for patients they have not seen in person?

Answer 1

Answer: The pharmaceutical companies manufacture and produces medicine and drugs for treating the disease. Although some of the cost of the drugs are high but the efficacy of the drug composition makes the treatment better. The pharmaceutical companies provides many of the research and development services of the medicine to enhance the efficiency of the drug. Their work is not limited only to manufacture the drug but many of the pharmaceutical companies have their own research and development projects where they research for the new drug and drug delivery systems. These pharmaceutical companies also sponsor international conference for the physician and health care professionals.

There are many issues regarding the prescribing medication for the patient that doctor have not seen in person, some of the issues are:

• Incomplete assessment: When healthcare professionals are unable to see the patient face to face, they only can collect the information told by the patient, this leads to incomplete assessment of the health issues.
• Poor patient understanding: When patient does not meet in a person with the healthcare professionals, it is difficult to teach patient about the medications and treatment methods.
• Lack of patient compliance: Face to face Communication results into better patient compliance, if personally the patient is not present then it becomes difficult to monitor the drug intake of the patient.
• Medical history and present vital signs: Virtually it is not possible to monitor the vital signs such as blood pressure, weight, heart rate etc. While prescribing medication vital sign should be observed.

For example, A patient is suffering from lower abdomen pain. But he doesn't have exact knowledge about the location of the pain, but he inform the physician about the pain and location what he feels like. The physician will be unable to assess pain and the exact location as it is not virtually possible. The pain may be due to some gastric problem or due to acid reflux. This becomes major issue of concern while prescribing medication.