Saturday, January 15, 2005
Me and Big Pharm, Part One, Medical School
Welcome to Disneyland.
A mere pion is the medical hierarchy. Still casually dressed in the academic pre-clinical years. A classmate told me of a wondrous monthly event in the gym. She came to class after lunch with a bag of goodies. Well I sure was at the next one and did not miss many.
A tasty lunch of warm animal carnage of some kind. Tasty beverages. Yummy desert. Yea salad and starch too. Whatever. A room full of doctors, mostly the residents for free lunch. You go around the tables like any convention. Welcome to the Drug Fair.
Pretty pretty displays. Men and women in business suits to enlighten you on the virtues of their drugs. Plenty of glossy folders and papers and cards. Some scientific papers of course proving how wonderful this new drug was. And all sorts of little toys: Penlights, pens, notepads, balls, EKG calculators and even real medical books and booklets.
Then onto the clinical years. Those insipid short white coats telling the nurses and tech's, "Yes I am an idiot with no status here-please abuse me." But our friends the drug reps were there with goodies and yummy food-a respite from the yucky crap in the cafeteria-which they insulted us by charging for-especially given the outrageous tuition.
The drug rep is your friend in your time of low self-esteem, abuse, sleep deprivation and poverty lifestyle. I was pulled into the vortex unsuspecting.
A mere pion is the medical hierarchy. Still casually dressed in the academic pre-clinical years. A classmate told me of a wondrous monthly event in the gym. She came to class after lunch with a bag of goodies. Well I sure was at the next one and did not miss many.
A tasty lunch of warm animal carnage of some kind. Tasty beverages. Yummy desert. Yea salad and starch too. Whatever. A room full of doctors, mostly the residents for free lunch. You go around the tables like any convention. Welcome to the Drug Fair.
Pretty pretty displays. Men and women in business suits to enlighten you on the virtues of their drugs. Plenty of glossy folders and papers and cards. Some scientific papers of course proving how wonderful this new drug was. And all sorts of little toys: Penlights, pens, notepads, balls, EKG calculators and even real medical books and booklets.
Then onto the clinical years. Those insipid short white coats telling the nurses and tech's, "Yes I am an idiot with no status here-please abuse me." But our friends the drug reps were there with goodies and yummy food-a respite from the yucky crap in the cafeteria-which they insulted us by charging for-especially given the outrageous tuition.
The drug rep is your friend in your time of low self-esteem, abuse, sleep deprivation and poverty lifestyle. I was pulled into the vortex unsuspecting.
