Information for the consumer in the USA

Abstract

I am struck by the similarities in many respects between the situation in the United States, which has developed historically, and that which has developed in France and the United Kingdom, particularly when it comes to the great interest shown by the public in more information on prescription medication, and the initial concentration on package leaflets as the answer to that demand. This represents an international trend not only in Europe and the United States but in Japan also, and reflects the greater rôle of patients and the public in health care, including diet and exercise, as well as medications. In the United States there is a multiplicity of information channels for the consumer. This has always been characteristically American. If one looks at newspapers and magazines, television programmes and booklets for the public, information on health care (drugs in particular) has increased dramatically in the last 10–20 years. In fact standard reference books for physicians, like the Physician’s Desk Reference, are bought by patients and other lay persons rather than physicians.