Priceless Knowledge: Attitudes and Awareness Around Drug Pricing Among US Medical Students
Medical students' education covers topics spanning health, disease, and treatment, but what about drug pricing and their role as prescribers?
In the issue of high drug prices, medical students’ understanding and attitudes are poorly understood.
High drug costs have become a prominent issue in recent years, with physicians seen as key players in the drug ecosystem. Educating medical students about the determinants of drug prices is also crucial to ensuring robust physician advocacy in the future. However, little is known about students’ understanding of or interest in this topic, or the extent to which medical schools are preparing them to meaningfully address this problem. The authors conducted a cross-sectional, web-based survey of US medical students, and found that while students understand the broad strokes of the drug pricing problem, their understanding of more nuanced issues is often lacking. They reported interest in drug pricing but inadequate instruction.
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