Docs Will Get Drug Safety Alerts… By E-mail
5 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // March 25th, 2008 // 3:15 pm
It’s about time, yes? A non-profit group, the iHealth Alliance, is launching an online network that will send e-mail alerts to docs. Of course, the docs have to sign up. The move comes two years after the FDA issued a guidance that attempted to update the equivalent of a pigeon-carrier system, although many drugmakers still use the US Mail because that seems like a good way to ensure a doc actually receives an alert.
In explaining the service, iHealth claims that various surveys suggest some 90 percent of docs would like electronic notices, but the paper keeps on coming - and sometimes office managers toss them in the trash. “Gatekeepers,” as they’re called by Janet Woodcock of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, “often discard these important paper-based alerts as ‘junk mail.’”
The new HealthCare Notification Network will be available for free and will be used only for sending safety alerts, not for advertising or promotion, according to Medem, a for-profit company that is running the service and which was created by various medical societies, including the American Medical Association. Drugmakers, however, must pay to use the system. Among those signed up - Johnson & Johnson.
One possible problem - the alerts will be distributed according to physician specialty. So the rheumatologist, for instance, will receive alerts concerning label changes, warnings and recalls about drugs the rheumatologist typically prescribes. And so on… Of course, with interactions between medicines regularly causing grief, this may be seen as a potentially worrisome and limiting factor. If this new system is supposed to be an opportunity to upgrade communications, than Medem and iHealth Alliance ought to go all the way.
Lisa Van S
Ed,
The APA hs just issued an alert to state that excessive emailing and text messaging will be added to DSM as a Mental Illness. HMMM, Will Docs sign up knowing that they can possibly rcve a label of Mental Illness if they email to much.
Chris
Nice concept and as you point out cross-over caused by drug interactions may require notifications outside the prescriber’s particular specialty, expanding original estimates.
Not sure how family practitioners and internists will keep up to all the messages.
Could it be that e-mail is so ubiquitous that important messages may hit the spam can and perhaps pigeon post might just hit home?
Not surprised that data can be found for e-alerts. They are cheaper to do - interested to see how many are opened and acknowledged in real time though.
Ed Silverman
Hi Chris,
Yes, some docs would, no doubt, complain about receiving too many e-mails. Or perhaps some e-mails would get routed by a spam filter. And that’s why this is being set up to alert docs based on specialty. Unfortunately, that only raises the issue I pointed out. If the whole point is to improve safety notification, then all docs should receive all alerts. File it under: You never know….
My 1.3 cents, adjusted for the declining dollar.
ed
Dan
My first impression of this service is that others are forced what should be done for doctors already, and is not or else the service would not be created.
Don’t think docs will mind this form of communication, and believe it will be beneficial.
Bryan
Anyone can subscribe to the FDA’s Medwatch RSS feed at feed://www.fda.gov/medwatch and get alerts about drug safety. Most modern e-mail programs can subscribe to RSS feeds. Most home pages like iGoogle and My Yahoo! can also subscribe to RSS feeds. There’s no reason why a doctor who wants the latest on drug safety can’t get alerts on new drug safety events for a range of drugs.