Diprivan (propofol) and Michael Jackson

Although Diprivan is widely used every day in hospitals and surgery centers across the United States, very few people, outside of medical personnel, were familiar with it or had even heard of it prior to its being found in Michael Jackson’s home after his untimely death. And while we still don’t yet know if it was related in any way to his death, many people want to know more about Diprivan and what its potential effects might have been. I worked for ICI, now Astra Zeneca, the pharmaceutical company that originally developed Diprivan, in the mid-80s during the time it was being prepared for market launch. I was part of the team helping to train the sales people who would later be selling the product. But Diprivan was unlike any product previously sold by these representatives because it was going to be used by anesthesiologists in the operating room before and during surgery (eventually another use was studied for keeping people in ICUs unconscious for long periods of time while they recovered from severe illness or trauma). Working with a number of academic anesthesiologists we developed a program whereby the sales reps would spend time in actual operating room (OR) settings watching and learning from anesthetists – of course they didn’t actually touch or do anything – but they needed to see for themselves how complex the anesthesia process is, just how many different drugs and pieces of equipment are used on each patient, how closely the patien...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Tags: Healthy Living alcohol anesthesia anesthesiologists Astra Zeneca availability blog dangereous Diprivan Diprivan safety Diprivan use Dr. Z's medical report drug Ed Zimney Everyday Health fatal hospital setting hospitals Source Type: blogs