Pharmaceutical Reps Are Not So Bad

I know these days everyone loves to hate a pharmaceutical rep, especially with news reports of them doing just about anything to get doctors to prescribe their medications...even using non-FDA approved indications as a selling point. Most of them are salesmen types with fake smiles and company cars, but here is the scary truth...some doctors could not survive without them, especially the ones who sell the surgical equipment. I recently scrubbed into an ACL repair (knee surgery) that was being done arthroscopically (as most are done these days). The representative from the company that was supplying the equipment to perform the repair was present, and to be honest, he should have been the one doing the surgery! Beyond the basics, the surgeon did not know how to use the equipment, and needed the rep to guide him through each step. It was stressful, scary, and 2 hours longer than it should have been. Most surgeons who use more than a scapel and some sutures will have a company representative in the OR with them from time to time...and some of them will have a rep with them almost all of the time. I also scrubbed a shoulder case with an orthopedic surgeon recently who decided he needed to use a certain piece of equipment to repair a tear in area of the shoulder called the labrum. The surgeon was looking to the scrub tech and the nurse to put the equipment together properly, but they did not know how. The rep was called, and rushed to the hospital so the surgery could continue. Perhaps surgeons should be forced into taking training courses before they are allowed to use this equipment on real patients...but that would be in the perfect world of healthcare, not the real world of healthcare.