The National Council on Patient Information and Education

Abstract

To the Editor. —In the Medical News & Perspectives article by Mr Marwick,1Ray Bullman, executive director of the National Council on Patient Information and Education (NCPIE), was reported to have said that a coalition has been organized to implement theAction Plan for the Provision of Useful Prescription Medicine Information(MedGuide) and that all 34 original steering committee organizations responsible for drafting the plan have joined. If these statements have been correctly attributed to Mr Bullman, they are untrue. As public interest groups and members of the original steering committee responsible for drafting the MedGuide, the AIDS Treatment Data Network, Center for Medical Consumers, Citizen Advocacy Center, National Women's Health Network, and Public Citizen have not joined NCPIE in the coalition alluded to by Mr Bullman. We have refused to associate with the NCPIE implementation program for 2 reasons. First, we view NCPIE's economic and philosophical juxtaposition to