Overcoming the fear of cortisone
Situation: unrealistic fears of the side effects of cortisone are counteracted by its practical use in asthma and rheumatism. Physicians are afraid that patients will refuse therapy after reading the package insert – if not before.
Implementation and successes: A continuing education package with a patient brochure and a physicians lecture are compiled in association with self-help organisations, and as a result are widely used by consumer organisations. An extensive information campaign in the trade and lay press is conducted simultaneously. Telephone campaigns with daily newspapers and popular magazines in particular are very well received by patients. An experienced physician runs his consultation hour once a week in the newly built Cortisone Information Centre (CIC), which is also used by office-based general practitioners to clarify therapeutic problems in specific cases. Sales of Merck’s range of corticoids soar.