CORRESPON DENCE
Accredited pharmaceutical manufacturers representatives To the editor: I was taken aback to see the full-page endorsement by Dr. Kenneth 0. Wylie (president of the Canadian Medical Association) of drug salesmen who undertake to complete the take-home course offered by the Council for- the Accreditation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Representatives of Canada (Can Med AssocJ 119: 1336, 1978). On pages 1336 and 1337 the term health professional appears five times. This term, as applied to a person whose job is to promote drug sales, is meaningless. As all drug representatives know, if they do not promote sales, regardless of how professional they are about promoting health, they will soon be out of a job. To consider someone in this role a health professional is to insult physiotherapists, dietitians, nurses, physicians and other true health professionals. Dr. Wylie states that the council is "a nonprofit organization". He doesn't mention the fact that it is financed by about 50 large, mostly multinational, companies, and that its functional staff is one administrator and his secretary, who, though enthusiastic and industrious, can scarcely ensure adequate control. Contributions to the Correspondence section are welcomed and if considered suitable will be published as space permits. They should be typewritten double-spaced and, except for case reports, should be no longer than 1½ manuscript pages.
Although the accredited pharmaceutical manufacturers representatives "study for a year, on a voluntary basis", there are no teachers or classes for this mail-order course since the industry is unwilling to pay for them. The course is sometimes a prerequisite to continuing employment. Dr. Wylie states that "an examination [is] held in 11 University Centers across Canada". The only university affiliation is the rental fee for the rooms. Dr. Wylie's endorsement is a distortion that promotes an underfinanced, understaffed project of the pharmaceutical industry designed to render its image more scientific. While I have no objection to the drug industry's trying to improve its image, I see no reason for someone in Dr. Wylie's position to play godmother to its promotional brainchild. It is no wonder that sceptics inside and outside the medical profession sometimes doubt its collective integrity if such blurring of obvious issues can occur at this level. I wonder what's next. WARREN BELL, MD
3650 Northcliffe Ave. Montreal, PQ
Music therapy in palliative care To the editor: Please reassure me that the article entitled "Music therapy in palliative care" by S. Munro and Dr. B. Mount (Can Med Assoc 1 119: 1029, 1978) was meant to be some kind of joke.
Surely we do not need some crackpot therapist with a half-baked degree in psychology to tell us what kind of music to listen to when we are sick. It is well known that "musick hath charms". I can imagine my own chagrin if, under these circumstances, such a therapist told me that perhaps today my psychosocial-spiritual-sexual status precluded my hearing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and that Mozart's Piano Concerto in C Major would be more suitable. It is obvious that pleasant music possesses soothing qualities, just as it is obvious that rooms whose walls are garishly striped have an unsettling effect. Therefore, is it necessary to publish such articles in the guise of learned scientific thought when they are merely common sense made muddy and obscure by jargon-ridden balderdash? DAVID R. AMIEs, MD
10111 Richmond Ave. Grande Prairie, Alta.
To the editor: We assure Dr. Amies that no joke was intended in our article. The documented deficiencies in the delivery of health care to terminally ill Canadians are sufficiently serious to render levity, or yet another superficial analysis of the problem, inappropriate.1 Dr. Amies' letter is an excellent example of Ellis's observation that we react not to facts but to our beliefs about facts.2 We concur that it would be unwise to elicit the assistance of a "crackpot therapist with a half-baked
CMA JOURNAL/JUNE 9, 1979/VOL 120 1327
Accredited pharmaceutical manufacturers representatives To the editor: I was taken aback to see the full-page endorsement by Dr. Kenneth 0. Wylie (president of the Canadian Medical Association) of drug salesmen who undertake to complete the take-home course offered by the Council for- the Accreditation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Representatives of Canada (Can Med AssocJ 119: 1336, 1978). On pages 1336 and 1337 the term health professional appears five times. This term, as applied to a person whose job is to promote drug sales, is meaningless. As all drug representatives know, if they do not promote sales, regardless of how professional they are about promoting health, they will soon be out of a job. To consider someone in this role a health professional is to insult physiotherapists, dietitians, nurses, physicians and other true health professionals. Dr. Wylie states that the council is "a nonprofit organization". He doesn't mention the fact that it is financed by about 50 large, mostly multinational, companies, and that its functional staff is one administrator and his secretary, who, though enthusiastic and industrious, can scarcely ensure adequate control. Contributions to the Correspondence section are welcomed and if considered suitable will be published as space permits. They should be typewritten double-spaced and, except for case reports, should be no longer than 1½ manuscript pages.
Although the accredited pharmaceutical manufacturers representatives "study for a year, on a voluntary basis", there are no teachers or classes for this mail-order course since the industry is unwilling to pay for them. The course is sometimes a prerequisite to continuing employment. Dr. Wylie states that "an examination [is] held in 11 University Centers across Canada". The only university affiliation is the rental fee for the rooms. Dr. Wylie's endorsement is a distortion that promotes an underfinanced, understaffed project of the pharmaceutical industry designed to render its image more scientific. While I have no objection to the drug industry's trying to improve its image, I see no reason for someone in Dr. Wylie's position to play godmother to its promotional brainchild. It is no wonder that sceptics inside and outside the medical profession sometimes doubt its collective integrity if such blurring of obvious issues can occur at this level. I wonder what's next. WARREN BELL, MD
3650 Northcliffe Ave. Montreal, PQ
Music therapy in palliative care To the editor: Please reassure me that the article entitled "Music therapy in palliative care" by S. Munro and Dr. B. Mount (Can Med Assoc 1 119: 1029, 1978) was meant to be some kind of joke.
Surely we do not need some crackpot therapist with a half-baked degree in psychology to tell us what kind of music to listen to when we are sick. It is well known that "musick hath charms". I can imagine my own chagrin if, under these circumstances, such a therapist told me that perhaps today my psychosocial-spiritual-sexual status precluded my hearing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and that Mozart's Piano Concerto in C Major would be more suitable. It is obvious that pleasant music possesses soothing qualities, just as it is obvious that rooms whose walls are garishly striped have an unsettling effect. Therefore, is it necessary to publish such articles in the guise of learned scientific thought when they are merely common sense made muddy and obscure by jargon-ridden balderdash? DAVID R. AMIEs, MD
10111 Richmond Ave. Grande Prairie, Alta.
To the editor: We assure Dr. Amies that no joke was intended in our article. The documented deficiencies in the delivery of health care to terminally ill Canadians are sufficiently serious to render levity, or yet another superficial analysis of the problem, inappropriate.1 Dr. Amies' letter is an excellent example of Ellis's observation that we react not to facts but to our beliefs about facts.2 We concur that it would be unwise to elicit the assistance of a "crackpot therapist with a half-baked
CMA JOURNAL/JUNE 9, 1979/VOL 120 1327
