Citing patient preference in a patient profile
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Hi PAAB,
I’m looking for clarification regarding whether patient preference can be cited in a patient profile as an acceptable reason for switching to a different treatment.
Specifically, if Canadian clinical guidelines indicate that patient preference is a legitimate consideration when selecting or switching medications, would it be acceptable to reference, for example, that a patient dislikes oral medications or has difficulty remembering to take pills—as a rationale for considering an injectable treatment instead?
I understand that we must avoid any disparaging remarks about other products or dosage forms. However, if the rationale is grounded in patient preference and is consistent with guideline-based reasoning (even if “preference” is somewhat broadly defined), would this type of messaging be considered acceptable?
Looking forward to your guidance on this.
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Hello @adelaidebaker
As a general principle, the clinical decision to prescribe or switch should be made based on clinical considerations. Patient preference can be a part of a patient profile but should not be positioned as the reason to prescribe or switch. Patient preference can be presented as a consideration, without drawing conclusions about clinical actions.
With respect to the specific case presented in the question, the copy in the guidelines and the APS would have to be assessed at the time of submission. We’d caution that “broadly defined” may be problematic and that drawing inference around patient choice such as “difficulty remembering to take pills and therefore might prefer injections” would require statistically significant evidence from a published high quality source.
