I must admit there are days, many, many days I hate my job. But some things happen that make it a little worthwhile too. Take this case of the big fight over Bidil at my job. Now Bidil is a combined product antihypertensive. It is made of isosorbide 20 mg and hydralazine 37.5 mg.
Bidil became famous when it was shown in a drug study to be more effective in African Americans (it was effective in all patients but a subcategory African American showed the most benefit)
Now we have all heard how hypertension in African Americans is more resistant to treatment so this finding was quite a bit of a big deal. Bidil however is not carried by my hospital pharmacy and we usually substitute isosorbide and hydralazine when we get an order for Bidil.
The problem however is that the strength of hydralazine in Bidil is not on the market so we substitute hydralazine 35 mg for 37.5 mg. One of the medical directors threw a big fuss over it and brought it to the pharmacy and therapeutics meeting for it not to be substituted. Well, the pharmacists in the meeting were angry cos Bidil is expensive for patients to buy and what some of them will do is not buy their medications and when they are ill, they will come to the emergency room. The MDs were like "out our business! what we prescribe for our patients outpatient is not your problem. Let us deal with that."
So pharmacy was outvoted and Bidil was added on. The next month, it was discoverd that this medical director was a paid speaker for Bidil so it was brought up at the next meeting (as well as many backup ... that 7am meeting was the most attended I have ever seen til date)
Now its not that you cannot be a paid speaker for a drug company but you have declare it beforehand. So he apologized and the discussion began. Needless to say, oyinbo tore into him trying to humiliate him. He was outvoted this time.
I thought that was wrong but .... wetin I fit do? So now, we are still substituting for Bidil which is ok, not a big deal in terms of effectiveness but that meeting na wa. Things get as them be oh for this obodo oyinbo.
Now let me get back to stuff. Stay blessed.

posted by lala @ 4:16 PM

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