Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy named RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, one of the “Five from the Nonprofit World Who Will Influence Public Policy in 2013.” She was also featured in a profile in the Newark, New Jersey, Star-Ledger, as part of a series profiling “some of the people who make the Garden State special.”

RWJF Senior Communications Officer Linda Wright Moore wrote a piece for Ebony.com about the work of Debbie Chatman Bryant and Ifeanyi Anne Nwabukwu, who were honored last year as RWJF Community Health Leaders for their work to fight cancer. Bryant cares for the underserved in the Low Country of South Carolina, and Nwabukwu helps African immigrant women in the Washington, D.C. area.

John R. Lumpkin, MD, MPH, senior vice president and director of the Health Care Group at RWJF, and Susan Bakewell-Sachs, PhD, RN, program director of the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) and interim provost of the College of New Jersey, published a guest editorial in the Newark Star Ledger about NJNI’s work to solve the state’s nurse faculty shortage. Since its launch in 2009, NJNI has supported 61 New Jersey Nursing Scholars, providing tuition and other support while they pursue master’s or doctoral degrees that qualify them for faculty positions. NJNI is a program of RWJF and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

“I have a lot of experience when patients of mine come and say, ‘I was taking a green pill and now it’s pink. What's going on?’” Aaron Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH, an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research recipient, told Reuters. Kesselheim’s new research finds that patients are less likely to take their medication if the color changes, which often happens when they switch from a brand-name to a generic drug. The findings were also covered by the New York Times Well blog, CBS News, and Health Canal, among others. Read more about Kesselheim’s work here and here.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

The Baltimore Times reports on the Tour for Diversity in Medicine, founded in part by RWJF Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP) alumnus Alden Landry, MD, MPH. Several weeks each year, the Tour visits college campuses across the country to promote careers in the health professions to students from groups underrepresented in higher education. Read more about the Tour for Diversity here and here.

Jason Karlawish, MD, recipient of an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer about tests for Alzheimer’s disease. Read posts Karlawish wrote for the RWJF Human Capital Blog about the disease and the challenges associated with early diagnosis.

Pharmacy Times reports on a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine, co-authored by Investigator Award recipient Aaron Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH. It addresses concerns about a proposal to increase liability for generic drug manufacturers for adverse reactions. Read a post Kesselheim wrote for the RWJF Human Capital Blog about pharmaceutical industry marketing to medical students.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

Forbes named RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, to its annual list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” The list includes political leaders, corporate executives, NGO heads, top government officials and a first lady.

The Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) program has announced grants to nine states, Nurse.com reports. California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington state will receive two-year, $300,000 grants to advance state and regional strategies aimed at creating a more highly educated, diverse nursing workforce. Read more about the APIN grants.

City Biz List Baltimore reports on the selection of Jason E. Farley, PhD, MPH, CRNP, to be a 2012 RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholar. He is among the 12 talented junior nurse faculty members chosen for the highly competitive program. Read more about the new cohort of Nurse Faculty Scholars.

RWJF Physician Faculty Scholars alumnus Deverick J. Anderson, MD, MPH, spoke to the Associated Press about hospital infection control and “superbugs,” or antibiotic-resistant germs. The story was picked up by USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, and CBS News, among other outlets.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Nursing honored the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action with one of its “Nurse 21 Awards” at its second annual gala, Nurse.com reports.

Aaron Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a primary care physician based in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a 2009 recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research.

As a physician who studies trends in drug prescribing and seeks to promote evidence-based medicine, I have always been intrigued by the paradox related to the impact of pharmaceutical marketing on physicians’ behavior. Physicians are highly educated, and that preparation is intended to impart special insight when it comes to the medical literature and evaluating the data underlying potential treatment decisions. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that when physicians are surveyed, most report that pharmaceutical marketing does not sway their individual prescribing choices. Yet most objective studies show that marketing does indeed drive prescribing in non-evidence-based ways. And physicians, when polled, will generally not deny this effect, although they usually point fingers at their colleagues, believing them to be influenced by marketing, while claiming that they personally are not.

What’s going on? In numerous cases, pharmaceutical industry marketing has been shown to rely on distorted presentations of the medical literature, and many advertising campaigns improperly favor use of the particular drug being promoted in order to sell more product. Yet most physicians take seriously their professional ethical requirements, and I don’t doubt that all physicians try to apply their years of training to offer the best care they can to their patients. If so, why are physicians as susceptible to marketing messages from the pharmaceutical industry as ordinary consumers are susceptible to marketing messages they see on television?

One possible contributing factor is the perspectives and practices formed early in physicians’ careers. The socialization effect of professional schooling can be strong, exerting a powerful influence on how students behave after graduation. It is well known that medical students are frequently exposed to pharmaceutical marketing, even in their preclinical years. Some policymakers dismiss the relevance of these interactions; after all, medical students cannot prescribe drugs, so the potential for direct harm is limited. And medical students are often deeply in debt, and thus many sorely need the free supplies and books that might be distributed to them by pharmaceutical manufacturers.

To casual observers, two facts about the U.S. pharmaceutical industry seem to be at odds. On one hand, the industry as a whole is very profitable: It had a 2008 profit margin of 19 percent, and it is regularly at or near the top of Fortune 500 rankings of the most profitable industries. On the other hand, the industry is the beneficiary of extensive market incentives from the federal government, incentives designed to encourage companies to develop drugs that address particular conditions or that meet the needs of specific groups of patients.

But do those incentives accomplish what federal policy makers had in mind? Aaron Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., a 2009 recipient of an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, has taken a close look, and in a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine reviews his findings.

RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Research National Program Director Alan B. Cohen, Sc.D., had a letter in the December 29, 2010 New York Times (Avastin: Judging the Risks vs. Benefits), noting that Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval of new drugs “commonly opens the floodgates to widespread use, often by many patients for whom the benefits are questionable.” Cohen argues that the FDA and the manufacturers of new drugs “should be required to consider the varying effects of a new drug on different groups of people so that drug approval decisions can be targeted at those who will really benefit while preventing or minimizing adverse effects for those who won’t.”