John S. Gage wrote:
>
> The last thing on earth
> that the US pharmaceutical industry wants is anything that even slightly
> resembles standardization of prescribing habits.
>
So to follow our earlier example as to what the purpose of a
new system would be, John would argue that the purpose of
prescribing systems is to make prescribing easier and to
provide the latest information while prescribing, not to
foster analysis of prescribing habits in the attempt to
standardize them.
I submit both purposes are being pressed on this front. One
can make economic arguments around both. Economic arguments
of course, that put different sectors of the health care
industry in opposition to each other. One can also put
ethical and practical arguments behind these purposes. It
is precisely this difference in purpose and motivation that
makes things complicated and messy.
