Template talk:CZMed

Add cost information?

The following is a copy paste of the summary email from a thread at cz-health-sci@mail.citizendium.org this month:
Thanks for everyone’s helpful comments. At this point, I will not make any changes to Template:CZMed. When http://drugstore.com or other entity has a better international presence, I will requery this group or else with a proposal that tries to address the following concerns that have been raised:

1. Not promoting a specific drug vendor
2. Being useful to multiple countries
3. Not focusing our drug articles on cost and not diluting other information

- Robert Badgett 16:53, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Given some possible misunderstandings, it might be well to summarize a bit more not just of template mechanics, but of the general role of our drug articles. As I mentioned, it's easy enough to find consumer or even prescribing information, but I tend to need to reach for a textbook if I need the structural formula or even chemical class. Someday, I shall get an update for my extremely battered Merck Index of Chemicals and Drugs, often my reference if Goodman and Gilman didn't have it, but that book has sentimental value: I pestered and pestered my mother until I got it as a 12th birthday present. That, I suspect, is some sort of weird Health Sciences Credential. :-)

Really, there's a need for consumer and policy information, but it just doesn't seem the current emphasis here, from which I can quickly find useful information in one place. It's amazing how few prescriber inserts and such give reasonable chemical information, at least readable without a microscope. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:08, 22 January 2009 (UTC)