The goal of the Academic Detailing Planning Initiative is to identify and bring to fruition public and policy-oriented interventions targeted at improving health outcomes and decreasing the cost of health care delivery.

Academic detailing programs provide objective information to prescribers on prescription drugs and alternative treatment options based on the best available evidence-based science.  This information is used to counter the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing strategies which often uses salespeople, rather than clinicians to promote company specific dugs - even if those drugs are less effective and more expensive than other drugs available.   Academic detailing has shown to be effective in reducing the occurrence of inappropriate and unnecessary prescribing.

Prescription Policy Choices (PPC) will bring together and facilitate experts, stakeholders, natural allies and key parties through a process of collective research, analysis, and planning to discover, detail and disseminate an effective and appropriate strategy for promoting academic detailing in New England. 

PPC will provide the administrative structure and technical assistance needed to strengthen the organizational capacity of parties interested in developing and expanding an academic detailing program(s) in northern New England, including non-profit organizations such as state medical associations, health policy and advocacy organizations, state-administered programs, and other interested parties within the region.

PPC will organize and coordinate collaborative partners in:

• Conducting research, data collection, and data analysis;
• Planning, convening and facilitating informational summits;
• Producing new documentation summarizing existing programs, and articulating models for the development of academic detailing programs and opportunities for collaboration or expanding existing programs;
• Assessing the resources necessary for successful implementation of programs; and
• Recommending a course direction for supporting academic detailing program trainings and service provision in Northern New England