Transparency Initiative in Healthcare

Perception and Transparency Food and Drug Administration recently embarked on an initiative to enhance transparency in research, pricing, and marketing of medical products through establishing its transparency taskforce. This initiative was also fueled by President Obama's directive due to the greater demand for transparency in various aspects relating to medical products. FDA's transparency taskforce is mandated with the responsibility of identifying ways through which the agency can make beneficial and understandable information regarding the approval procedures of medical products.

Moreover, the taskforce is responsible for identifying measures through which transparency in this federal agency can promote and strengthen the innovation of medical products in today's healthcare system. While the initiative is geared towards enhancing transparency with regards to product innovation and approval process, the demand for greater transparency in research, pricing, and marketing of medical products has been fueled by several historic factors. One of the historic factors that have fueled this demand is the ever-increasing healthcare costs. The U.S.

healthcare sectors have traditionally been affected by increasing healthcare costs that have hindered universal accessibility and affordability of these services. The increasing healthcare costs have in turn acted as a catalyst for call for improved transparency in research, pricing, and marketing of medical products. Secondly, this greater demand for transparency has been brought by lack of financial transparency in this sector (Wechsler, 2009, p.40).

While healthcare costs continue to increase, there has been lack of financial transparency as evidenced in the fact that few people understand the process through which medical products are priced. Actually, there have been concerns that medical products continue to be expensive while there is lack of transparency. The third historical factor contributing to this demand is the proposals for expansion of the adoption of health IT by providers. These proposals have been accompanied by suggestions to finance comparative-effectiveness research that promotes transparency in this field.

The healthcare industry has responded to the calls for greater transparency through establishment of several initiatives and programs. For instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has established a taskforce to develop measures that would eventually contribute to transparency, especially in product innovation and approval. On the other hand, government agencies and consumer groups constantly provide information regarding the prices and coverage of drug in order to prevent unsuitable use of medical products and promote cost-effective treatments.

The government has also established several regulatory requirements for manufacturers in relation to disclosure of funding to researchers and clinical practitioners. The other measure is the establishment of the drug-safety program to help ensure transparency. While these efforts have helped in enhancing transparency in the industry, they are seemingly inadequate given the numerous issues, concerns, and challenges related to transparency. The inadequacy of these measures is evident in the conflicts of interests and marketing of medical products for unapproved uses.

The concerns and issues that have characterized the other initiatives also point to the.