Incentivisation practices and their influence on physicians' prescriptions: A qualitative analysis of practice and policy in Pakistan.

ABSTRACT: Focus on profit-generating enterprise in healthcare can create conflicts of interest that adversely impact prescribing and pricing of medicines. Although a global challenge, addressing the impacts on quality of care is particularly difficult in countries where the pharmaceutical industry and physician lobby is strong relative to regulatory institutions. Our study characterises the range of incentives exchanged between the pharmaceutical industry and physicians, and investigates the differences between incentivisation practices and policies in Pakistan. In this mixed methods study, we first thematically analysed semi-structured interviews with 28 purposively selected for-profit primary-care physicians and 13 medical sales representatives from pharmaceutical companies working across Pakistan

SUBMITTER: Khan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10309616 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature