Melfi C A, Drake B G, Tierney W M
Department of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA.
Pharmacoeconomics. 1996 Feb;9(2):106-12. doi: 10.2165/00019053-199609020-00002.
Drug resource allocation decisions have a very real and direct impact on the public, due to cost and availability constraints resulting from these decisions. This presents an opportunity for public opinion to play an important role in influencing decisions that have far-reaching effects. Public opinion regarding pharmaceutical issues is influenced by drug companies, special interest groups, researchers and others. Since these groups often have conflicting goals, they may send contradictory messages to the public. In this article, we examine the issues of who comprises the public, how public opinion is influenced and what impact public opinion does and should have on drug resource allocation decisions. We emphasise that, for appropriate resource allocation decisions to be made, there is a continuing need to conduct high quality outcomes research and to continue the trend of increasing interest in how drugs are used rather than how much is sold or how much they cost. There is also a major role for pharmacoeconomic research to play in this issue, with a real need to make such research accessible and understandable by the public, including patients, physicians, pharmacists and policy makers, so that policy decisions can be based on such research.
由于药物资源分配决策所导致的成本和可得性限制，这些决策对公众有着非常切实和直接的影响。这为公众舆论在影响具有深远影响的决策方面发挥重要作用提供了契机。关于制药问题的公众舆论受到制药公司、特殊利益集团、研究人员及其他方面的影响。由于这些群体往往目标相互冲突，他们可能会向公众传递相互矛盾的信息。在本文中，我们探讨了构成公众的群体、公众舆论是如何受到影响的，以及公众舆论对药物资源分配决策已经产生和应该产生何种影响等问题。我们强调，为了做出恰当的资源分配决策，持续开展高质量的疗效研究以及延续对药物使用方式而非销量或成本的关注度不断上升的趋势是很有必要的。药物经济学研究在这个问题上也能发挥重要作用，切实需要让包括患者、医生、药剂师和政策制定者在内的公众能够理解并获取此类研究成果，以便政策决策能够基于这些研究。
