What We Do | What We Don’t Do | Limitations | Our Team
RxISK eCONSULT is the world’s first medication consulting service — connecting you with world-renowned medication specialists who can help you with questions about your prescription drugs, as well as supplements and vitamins.
Prescription-drug-induced adverse events are a leading cause of death and disability. There are thousands of other adverse effects that have been linked to medications even though they may not be in a drug manufacturer’s data sheet.
It is a mistake to think of medicines as having a single effect. There is vastly more serotonin in your gut than in your brain, for instance, and far more cholesterol in your brain than in your bloodstream. Drugs for osteoporosis can change your personality, while antidepressants can lead to bone fractures. Drugs may reduce your efficiency and safety at work and “remove” you from your family and friends in a range of ways. They may also impact your love life; affect your hair, skin, nails; induce suicidal and violent thoughts or behaviour; or cause many other adverse effects.
Many of these problems may be hugely important to you but are not considered “medically significant” and are disregarded by medical services.
What We Do
Could it be my meds?
If you think you may be suffering from an adverse event related to a medication you have been taking, our primary goal is to provide information and advice to help clarify whether this is likely and what approaches might be taken. During the consultation we will review your situation, answer your questions, and can follow up with a personalized written report.
Medication optimization strategies
We offer input on medication optimization strategies. Many of us, particularly as we get older, can be on 10 or more drugs — at which point the evidence shows that a planned reduction in the number of drugs you take can reduce the likelihood of your dying, reduce the likelihood of your ending up in hospital, and, of course, reduce your medications budget.
Withdrawal strategies
We also provide up-to-date information on the challenges in reducing or eliminating drugs – how to do this and what problems may have been caused by your drug but might not clear up on withdrawal. Knowing what problems are enduring effects of a drug may be discouraging but it can also avoid your receiving further unnecessary treatment.
Litigation support
Our team has had extensive experience in supporting both civil and criminal litigation as expert witnesses. We take cases where we believe there is a link between an individual’s medications and the outcomes.
What We Don’t Do
Don’t provide a diagnosis
We do not try to diagnose or validate the diagnoses of any medical or psychiatric conditions you may have. We do try to establish whether some of the physical or behavioral problems you are currently having may stem from the medication you have been prescribed.
Don’t provide a substitute for your health care team
We do not take over your ongoing care from your regular health care providers. Our aim is to provide information to assist you with and to support these relationships.
Don’t provide acute care
We do not provide advice for acute or urgent medical problems. You should seek urgent care close to you from the usual care providers.
Don’t prescribe medicines
We do not prescribe medicines or renew prescriptions.
Limitations
The primary goal of a consultation is to help you manage a problem you have.
We may or may not be able to help.
In cases where we are not able to help, this may be because no one knows the answer at this point. This is the point where you may be able to take up a new role as a researcher.
Our philosophy is that someone who is motivated to find answers — even if they have no background in healthcare — will often be able to find answers when the experts for one reason or another can’t.
Our role at this point will often be to support your research efforts, giving you feedback as to what seem like promising leads and what may be more likely to be dead-ends. We may also be able to put you in touch with other people who have comparable problems in the hope that co-operative efforts will more rapidly lead to better outcomes.
The consultation we provide is for informational purposes only and is not professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or care, nor is it intended to be a substitute therefore. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider properly licensed to practise medicine or general healthcare in your jurisdiction concerning any questions you may have regarding any information obtained from us and any medical condition you believe may be relevant to you or to someone else. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have consulted with us. Always consult with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider before changing a treatment or embarking on a new treatment, diet, or fitness program. Our consultation is intended only to facilitate the discussion you have with your health care team and not as a substitute.
Our Team
Our medical team is led by Dr. David Healy and Dr. Dee Mangin.
We also have a number of research personnel that we can call on, as well as established patient networks we can steer you toward.
We are always looking for medication specialists from around the world to join our team. If this interests you, please drop a note to David.Healy@RxISK.org along with your CV.
David Healy
Dr. David Healy, Chief Executive Officer and principal founder of Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd., is an internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author. A professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University in Wales, David is a former Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, and has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles, 200 other pieces, and 20 books.
David has been involved as an expert witness in homicide and suicide trials involving psychotropic drugs, and in bringing problems with these drugs to the attention of American and British regulators, as well raising awareness of how pharmaceutical companies sell drugs by marketing diseases and co-opting academic opinion-leaders, ghost-writing their articles. His latest book, Pharmageddon, documents the riveting and terrifying story of how pharmaceutical companies have hijacked healthcare in America and the life-threatening results.
He also publishes through his blog DavidHealy.org and on Twitter@DrDavidHealy.
Dee Mangin
Dr. Derelie (Dee) Mangin is a family doctor originally from New Zealand, where she was director of the Primary Care Research Unit at Otago University in Christchurch.
She has now moved to Canada and is the David Braley Nancy Gordon Chair in Family Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
She was an advisor to the New Zealand government on drug treatment funding priorities and served on the Southern Region Ethics Committee. She is a Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and in 2011 received their Distinguished Service Medal.
Dee has advocated for more than a decade for better independent information for patients and their doctors on drugs. She has published widely on rational use of drugs, including ‘deprescribing’ trials for polypharmacy and for individual drugs. She is co-editor of a WHO manual for medical and pharmacy students on understanding and responding to drug company promotion, as well as articles and book chapters addressing polypharmacy in older age. Dee is interested in the influence of commerce and politics on the science of medicine and was involved in a campaign to ban direct to consumer advertising of medicines in New Zealand. Dee is a frequent speaker at international conferences for family doctors with a focus on patient-centred medicine and rational drug use.