No matter why folks seek medical care, there are likely to be plenty of drugs designed to make them better.

So how does a doctor choose which drug is best?

The information often comes from drug company sales representatives, who have a financial stake in doctors’ choices. That worries a growing number of patient advocates, including AARP Maryland.

“The goal is to get the right drug, for the right person, at the right cost,” said Hank Greenberg, advocacy director for AARP Maryland.

John G. Folkemer, the state’s deputy secretary for health care financing, said, “Drug companies spend billions and they only provide one side of the story. We think sometimes there may be two or three sides.”

At the urging of legislators and a health care lobbying coalition including AARP, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will study whether the state can provide doctors with a more balanced view by creating a counterforce of drug educators. The study is due by Jan. 13, the opening day of next year’s legislative session.

The drug educators would be state-paid pharmacists adopting the tactics of drug representatives by making personal visits to doctors. But these state SWAT teams, as one legislator dubbed them, would provide comparative information on medicines that individual drug makers don’t offer.

“There are many different choices for treating a particular condition,” said David A. Knapp, a professor and former dean at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. “They range from very cheap, to very expensive, and differ in side effects. Also, a physician may be a specialist in heart disease, but be treating a patient who also has diabetes. Many doctors prescribe medicines outside their specialty.”

Knapp envisions a continuously updated matrix that would be available to doctors comparing the effectiveness, side effects and cost of various medications for a specific condition, such as high blood pressure.

To get the information to doctors, Knapp said, the personal touch is needed so doctors can discuss the differences between medications.

“Websites are passive,” he said.

The idea of sending state-paid pharmacists to visit doctors comes from experiments under way in other states, notably Pennsylvania.

Key Democrats in Congress have introduced bills (SB 767 and HR 1859) to provide grants to public agencies and nonprofit private organizations to finance the distribution of objective comparative drug information.

“The history of this—where it’s been done—is that people get better medicine and they save money, too,” said state Del. James W. Hubbard, a Democrat from Prince George’s County, who sponsored a bill to create the program.

The legislation called for creating five full-time and six part-time positions with salaries supported by a fee on the 90 drug manufacturers and pharmaceutical marketing companies doing business in Maryland. But in the midst of a deep recession, the idea of adding more employees and imposing a fee was a nonstarter, and the legislation died.

Critics questioned whether the personal outreach would be effective. J. William Pitcher, Maryland lobbyist for PhRMA, the umbrella group that represents the country’s drug makers, said primary care doctors already are inundated by competing drug sales reps. State counter-reps “would be just someone else taking the time of physicians,” Pitcher contended.

The typical general practitioner may see one to five drug reps a day, according to a pharmaceutical industry survey.

The House of Delegates’ only doctor, Del. Dan K. Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat, raised similar concerns—as did the state medical society.

“There is a definite need for information, but whether that information has to be delivered by people who visit doctors in their offices is, I think, open to discussion,” Morhaim said.

AARP’s Greenberg said the idea of providing objective drug information won’t go away, promising, “We’ll be watching.”

Karen Hosler is a reporter and producer for 88.1 WYPR radio in Baltimore.