Part 1

Hello, my blog name is Charlie Mable. I live in Toronto, am married and have three university aged kids. I am a manager in the pharmaceutical industry.  Our area of concern is treatment and opening access for opioid dependence and addiction to individuals struggling with the disease. I have a B.Sc. in biology with a psychology minor and an ATC designation as a Life Coach. My educational background in science and working in the pharmaceutical industry gives me access and direct use of research studies. I am interested in the practical applications of research, changes to treatment paradigms, medical breakthroughs and limitations. In my day to day work the studies are mostly quantitative as they effect patient outcomes and how physicians practice medicine. 

I found chapter 1 and 2 of Plano-Clarke (2015) very useful in differentiating quantitative and qualitative research studies. I would not have given as much weighting to qualitative studies before reading the details. Everyday problem solving involves the very basics of research including asking a question, collecting information and then deciding the best course of action based on the collected data.  “Research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information in order to increase our knowledge about a topic or issue.” (Plano-Clarke, 2015, p.4)

Part 2

An example of a decision I made as a leader concerned my nine representatives that cover the country. They only have limited capacity and the need for education regarding treating opioid addiction and dependence is great. I decided that the team needed prioritize and focus to spend half their time with addiction medicine specialists and half their time with family physicians to understand, screen and then treat or refer their patients. It was about setting up projects one by one,  finding success and then moving to the next project instead of feeling that they had to solve the addiction problem in Canada by themselves. 

The factors that I thought about was prioritizing the representatives time, resources, covering large territories, supporting those that treat addiction already and educating those that need to understand the disease process and treatment options. The decision involved two-way communication with my representatives and health care providers (HCP’s), critical thinking, problem solving and experience.  It was to focus on priorities and balance all the factors for best outcomes for my representatives capacity and HCP’s.

Scholarly inquiry can help narrow down the choices by being informed about what the best outcomes are after being studied. It takes some of the guesswork away.  I think I might know something by experience but having studies to prove one thing or another can reinforce my decisions or raise questions about why something should be changed or stay the same. Scholarly inquiry can influence all aspects of everyday decision making such as food choices, exercise, sleep, what products you use, transportation, personal health to name a few.

 

Part 3

Although Pfeffer and Sutton’s (2006) article was published in a very credible journal, the Harvard Business Review, the year was 2006. Evidenced-based management has changed significantly since then. I can personally attest to the pharmaceutical industry mentioned by Pfeffer and Sutton ( 2006).  The industry in Canada has very strict rules about what we can talk about and say about a product.  All marketing materials go through rigorous review internally including medical, compliance and legal departments then to the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB). The materials are derived from the product’s monograph which is a Health Canada approved document. If a representative says anything that is off label or from an unapproved document, they can lose their jobs, the company can be fined and if deliberately misleading by a marketing department, possible legal action. I didn’t see the suggestion of duct tape for warts referenced. (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006)

Medicine has experienced a change towards being evidence-based due to scholarly inquiry where guidelines are derived from that evidence. The guidelines become the standard of care and expect to be followed. If a patient experiences a bad outcome and the standard of care wasn’t followed, the physician might face disciplinary action. The areas of medicine that are catching up to be evidence-based are addiction medicine and treatment for pain.  They are underfunded specialties where more scholarly inquiry is needed. The government right now is throwing money at the problem of addiction and the crisis of overdose deaths in Canada however without formal research the desired outcomes will not be as effective. This is one example where evidence-based decision-making in leadership is so important.

Medical practice it has evolved from stand alone scholarly inquiries, to using the studies to generate guidelines which lead to standards of care that should be followed for quality patient outcomes.  Are there any other areas where this same process and approach is currently or should be applied?

References

Plano-Clark, V., Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R. I. (2006). Evidence-based management. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2006/01/evidence-based-managemen

Trybus, M. (2007). Understanding scientifically based research: A mandate or decision making tool? Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 73(4), 5-8.

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