I am writing this article while being in Atlanta U.S.A where the 9th conference and annual meeting for the American organization for clinical Endocrinology and diabetes, the conference was attended by nearly a 1000 specialized doctors from around the world, it included about 46 seminars, and displayed the latest developments, researches and studies in Endocrinology and diabetes, as for the exhibition 56 medical company participated in displaying their medical products from medicine, equipments and medical appliances.
Roaming around the exhibition, doctors are speaking with medical company representatives, and fueling up with massive amounts of information, booklets and filmed documentaries for different kinds of products with live demonstrations for some of the tools and equipments.
One of the most important issues to be discussed every year is the side effects of medicines and how to avoid them from happening.
Most of medical company representatives agree that the most important factor for side effects to happen is due to the negligence of doctors and patients alike, in reading the instructions attached with the medicine, this became one of the most important problems that is starting to surface recently after the FDA withdrew the some medicines from markets within one year due to dangerous side effects happening because of neglecting to read the attached instructions with the medicine.
USA today published in its 3rd edition of may 2000 on its front page titled (prescription notes attached to medicine contains complicated information with dangerous warnings hiding between its lines) and the conclusion to the subject is that, many specialists think that the FDA assumes that doctors and patients read warning instructions attached with the medicine, where the reality of things are otherwise, where studies done by the head of clinical medical research center in Duke University shows that less than 1% of doctors have read the instructions note attached with the medicine bottle during the past year and where only few patients give importance to it, and many just throws it away.
The dangerous thing about the matter us that those information change with time due to what’s newly developed in the medicine, and so producing companies adds other new warnings on the medicine bottle to become unaccountable, and where it becomes the responsibility of doctors and their patients.
Medical production companies tries as bring more awareness by sending warning letters to all doctors across the U.S to direct their attention to any new or additional information about the medicine.
Currently FDA is conducting a study to find the best efficient ways to urge doctors and patients to read instructions and warnings accurately before giving or taking medicines.
The article in the newspaper ends by saying that we are in need to change the way we educate patients and pass on information with that way to them, especially that annually produced medicines are rapidly increasing, with an increasing amount of information related to each medicine and their reactions, and doctors are not able to explain and discuss with patients all this massive amount information when patients visit, and where it is required by patients to do their roll by getting to know what they are taking and their side effects.
And since each community has its own characteristics that reflects education, environmental, social and financial ability levels of this community, and it is necessary for us to search more ways in the efficiency of educating patients, until that time, I call, urge and plead every patient to read the information attached with the medicine accurately and carefully before taking it, this information was not put for nothing, but is actually there to be read by doctors and patients alike.
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