Data Mining

Two Democratic Senators are attempting to end data mining of prescription records in order to prevent excessive influence from drug companies into prescription writing by physicians.

The amendment to the Senate health care bill would effectively ban pharmaceutical data mining, the drug company practice of buying prescription records to target sales pitches to doctors.

Sens. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois say the measure will combat "harassing sales practices" and "restrain undue influence" of pharmaceutical salespersons.

Crime Prevention

The National Community Pharmacists Association and RxPatrol have released a short video to train pharmacy staff about "some of the pharmacy crimes occurring across the country. It also details low-cost measures to protect pharmacies and explains the steps to take if a robbery or other crime occurs."

The video is on RxPatrol's website and can be directly accessed here.

High Regard

Gallup does annual polling on Honesty and Ethics of Professions.

Can you guess the top three spots?

Nurses, Pharmacists and Medical Doctors are the top professions believed to have high ethics.

Great news for health care professions and a sign that your opinion is valued. Use it wisely.