Is there a role for academic detailing in today’s healthcare systems?

Abstract

Increasingly, managed care organisations are trying to decide how to get physicians to rationalise their prescribing practices. In this environment, there could be a real role for academic detailing as a means of ensuring independent, cost-effective and safe prescribing, claimed Dr Jerry Avorn from Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, a pioneer in this field. Academic detailing involves exploiting the strengths of the drug industry sales model, using pharmacists to deliver independent advice on prescribing. ¹ At the 11th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology [ Montréal, Canada; August 1995 ], Dr Avorn and 2 other researchers from the UK and Australia presented models of academic detailing for 3 different healthcare systems.