There's no such thing as a free lunch

But there are plenty of free medicines from drug representatives!!!

Today after morning report (which is mostly just a list of the patients who are admitted with case presentations on Tuesday and Thursday) we had breakfast brought to us by representatives from Unipharm. In addition to empanadas and orange juice, we also got massive quantities of free prescription medications. 

Drug representatives have been banned from most academic medical centers so my experience at Duke has been completely devoid of interactions with them. From working/shadowing in some private clinics, I was able to meet some drug reps in the past. Generally, they had good relationships with the physicians they were working with. They would bring lunch and then talk for a few minutes about whichever drug they were bringing that day - the talk included recent studies that showed why this drug was awesome and that was that. The doctor was then free to give these samples to patients.

Today's visit was different. There was no technical discussion of any of the medicines being handed out. Also, we got literally bags full of different medications from antibiotics to iron supplements. Finally... these drugs aren't for patients. They are for us. To keep. When I asked what I was supposed to do with all the medicines I was told "Take them home for when you're sick." Can I give them to patients? "No."

I'm still trying to work this one out...