Anyone want to help Ben Goldacre who asks on his (secondary) blog:
"Okay cleverclogs: why do doctors prescribe what they prescribe?"
"It feels to me like I don't know much about one very important question in medicine: how do doctors make treatment decisions? I don't mean in the complex tricky cases - I can imagine the endless drudgery of research into that. I mean, in the routine banal situations, where they have to choose a statin, or an antidepressant, and there's more than one on the formulary. In short, my question is this: in situations like those, why do individual doctors prescribe what they prescribe? Is it colleagues, papers, adverts, habit, guidelines, lucky dice?"
"And most importantly, is there any good quantitative evidence on this (after the classic "Medical Innovation" paper on social contagion that is, which is from, like, a million years ago)? I mean, when people are in medical school, it's a bit more transparent, but once we're out in the world. Sheesh. How do doctors find out about stuff? And what affects them the most?"
http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/okay-cleverclogs-why-do-doctors-prescribe-wha
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