Just another pretty face...

It's so obvious that it's a gag for most doctors I know, but this editorial in the Denver Post really isn't funny. It's about one pharma sales rep's observation that all that's needed to get the job is, basically, to be good-looking. She even made a film about it:

In the film - which is largely satirical - [Katherine Heigl, who is in the new ABC series "Grey's Anatomy"] Heigl's character explains that she has no background in medicine. She asks an executive why he wants to hire her. "We just want someone with ample sales experience," the executive responds as the camera zooms in on her cleavage.

Some more snippets, this time from her real-life experience, not her film:

She flew all over the country for sales training meetings where she honed her pitches with other reps. "It was a sea of very beautiful people," she said.

At these meetings, Slattery-Moschkau said she met athletes, drama majors, artists and musicians, but rarely someone with a nursing or pharmacy background..."At one point, I was looking around and saying, 'Is this really happening?' We're talking about drugs that make the difference between life and death."

This is why medical science liaisons are so important--they supply the necessary scientific background and skills to do more than lob a sales pitch. For more, click here.