The Prescription For Medical Marketing

It's difficult to imagine that repeated, international, multi-billion dollar marketing initiatives routinely fail - yet that is what doctors ask us to believe when they claim immunity to infection from "Big Pharma's" spin. This over-confidence (and unreliable self-diagnosis) is expected, since doctors are experts in human physiology and disease, not business, psychology or the pathology of this insidious strain of advertising.

What's more worrying is the lack of self-awareness or understanding of their own susceptibility. This means that many doctors unwittingly expose themselves to dangerous exposure levels without taking reasonable precautions.

The remedy? Since the contagion is so deeply ingrained, simply cutting it out would jeopardise the entire system. Without surgery, we'll have to fall back on early broad spectrum inoculation for trainee doctors, ongoing monitoring of the population and, if wanton recklessness persists, quarantining the carriers.