The Covid-19 pandemic is teaching us many tragic lessons along with some instructive ones, like the importance of adding patients’ diagnoses to their prescriptions. An example from 2020 shows why.
In the spring and summer of 2020, there was a dramatic increase in the number of prescriptions written for hydroxychloroquine, a proven therapy for malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis that was being hyped as a treatment for Covid-19. But it is difficult to determine the reason for the spike in prescribing because the data shed no light on why the drug was prescribed. That’s because doctors are not required to include this critical information on prescriptions.
On March 28, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine for adults and teens hospitalized with Covid-19 who weighed more than 50 kilos and could not participate in a clinical trial. The emergency use authorization did not apply to outpatient uses. The FDA also cautioned that the drug could cause heart rhythm problems and other safety issues.
Then, on June 15, 2020, the FDA revoked that authorization based on new data, including results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized Covid-19 patients which found that hydroxychloroquine did not speed recovery or prevent death.
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