Consider this the baseline rules of engagement. OK, a number of medical centers adopted their own, more strict, policies. These included limiting access of pharmaceutical reps to the facilities entirely, and strict punishments or fines for rule violations, among others.

The introduction of these strict policies provides a window to see how prescribing habits change. And they did change, a bit.

The researchers looked at the prescribing habits of 2,126 providers at 19 medical centers before and after these strict policies were introduced. Specifically, they looked at the prescription rate of drugs that were actively marketed – the technical term here is pharmaceutical “detailing”. This sounds relatively simple, but there are some important twists to be aware of.

Take a look at this graph.