Lovenox pen

This is a great looking, great feeling, cleverly designed pen. Unfortunately, the ink cartridges are vying with Crestor's failure for "the worst I've ever tried to use." Not impressive.

Merrem Goggles

I think Merrem makes a wider variety of toys than any other drug I've seen. Here's the latest from them, a pair of goggles. I'm not likely to use them, but at least this toy has its uses in the hospital, and the logo is unobtrusive.

Merrem/Diprivan stethoscope light

This drug rep toy is a great idea, but the reality is disappointing. It's a tiny light that clips onto one's stethoscope. There are two problems with the design. One, the fit is not as tight as it might be, and that rattling distracts from using a stethoscope for its intended purpose. The second is that the light is an LED, and therefore has a bluish cast to it, which makes it ok for checking the optic and occulomotor nerves, but makes looking at the back of a patient's throat difficult, as everything is a different color. Reluctantly, I'm putting this one in the "might have been good" category.

Gardasil pen

Gardasil is Merck's latest wonder vaccine and lightning rod for controversy. However the pen is (without equivocation) wonderful. It is heavy and solidly constructed, with a quality ink cartridge. Definitely a quality find.

Protonix pen

Apologies for missing last week's posting, though I hope to make up for the delay with a few interesting toys this week. First we have this one, a pen advertising Protonix, which has in its end a small, fluid filled chamber in which one can see tiny creatures drawn on plastic floating about. They are the same ones seen on the magazine and TV adverts for this drug, and bear no resemblance whatsoever to H. pylori. This is a pretty heavy, nice feeling pen, though I don't like pens that distract me while I'm writing, so I'm not planning on using this one.

Tygacil pen

Tygacil is an antibiotic. Despite the gift of the pen, I'm not a huge fan, and I'm very cautious with it, since the last time I used it with a patient, he developed pancreatitis. Plus the pen is this garish orange monstrosity. I'm less likely only to use the V-Fend behemoth than this.

Rozerem pen

This is a really nice, attractive, smoothly writing pen. It's the same kind as the Topamax pen I received earlier, with a different color scheme. I've been using them both a lot lately.