As the primary point of contact with patients, healthcare professionals offer invaluable and expert knowledge on patient outcomes and management of diseases.
Sharing information and best practice on state-of-the-art treatments plays a crucial role in informing the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to improve patient care, treatment options and patient outcomes.
Prescription medicines developed by the industry are complex products designed to address the needs of patients. The pharmaceutical industry has a special duty to ensure that healthcare professionals are kept constantly in touch with continuing developments in the pharmaceutical field. Indeed, educating healthcare professionals about the medicines and the diseases that they treat benefits patients. Accordingly, meetings and events may be organised between the industry and the professions for the further exchange of ideas and information. In addition, the custom has grown of the industry supporting independent meetings of healthcare professionals intended to update and expand the continuing education of the professions themselves. Many of these meetings could not take place without the support and assistance of the pharmaceutical industry. Companies may legitimately provide assistance that is directly related to the bona fide continuing education of the healthcare professionals and which genuinely facilitates attendance of the healthcare professional for the duration of the educational aspect of the event.
Here in Ireland disclosure of payments made to HCPs and HCOs during 2017, will be available from 30th June 2018.