The PRN e-mail lists are intended to facilitate and stimulate meaningful and appropriate discussion among PRN members concerning professional issues in patient care and appropriate drug therapy. Discussions concerning challenging clinical questions or therapeutic approaches are not only appropriate but are also welcomed. Clearly, these are benefits to each PRN member and are encouraged.

However, it is imperative that the PRN e-mail service not be used in a way that might be perceived by an outside agency as contributing to any illegal or unethical conversations. For example, discussions, questions, or answers concerning the establishment of specific prices, charges, costs, or values for products or services could be perceived as price collusion between competing clinicians or institutions. Recommendations favoring or disfavoring a particular vendor, service provider, or product could be viewed as an illegal boycott. Even if the answers sought appear to be couched in a seemingly harmless survey, it should be understood that these types of inquiries could result in time-consuming, expensive, and detrimental investigations by an outside agency/authority. For these reasons, ACCP strongly encourages all PRN members to avoid these types of questions or surveys so that the integrity of ACCP and the PRNs does not come into question.

Following are suggestions for the effective use of the PRN e-mail lists to facilitate communication among PRN members.

E-mail List Etiquette and Procedures

1. Include a signature on all messages. The signature should include your name, affiliation, location, and e-mail address.
2. Clearly articulate in your communication whether the information being provided represents factual information/data or is a professional or personal opinion.
3. Recognize, and be sensitive to the fact, that use of the e-mail list is a “public” activity subject to the subpoena power of law enforcement authorities, like most other forms of communication. There should be no expectation of privacy in e-mail list communications.
4. It is recommended that you send all of your messages to an e-mail list in plain text format as opposed to rich text or HTML.
5. When you receive a message directed to the list, selecting the Reply button in your e-mail program will send the response to the author of the message. Selecting the Reply All button in your e-mail program will send your response to the original author as well as the entire list. Always double-check the name or address you are replying to when responding to a message transmitted by an e-mail list.
6. If you receive an unwanted message from a list member who does not observe these rules, please do not respond to the list. Instead, ignore the message or, if you feel the need to respond to the sender, make certain you reply only to the sender.
7. If you plan to use an automatic e-mail response to indicate that you are out of the office, please remember to set your subscription type to NOMAIL until you return.

Prohibited Communications
The following types of communications must be strictly avoided on all PRN e-mail lists because of their actual or perceived violation of federal laws related to restraint of trade and/or anti-competitive practices:

1. Comments, recommendations, questions, or answers concerning the establishment or amounts of specific prices, charges, or costs for products and/or services, sharing of fee structures, or financial information that could suggest possible price collusion between competitors (e.g., competing clinicians or institutions).
2. Recommendations that favor or disfavor a particular vendor or service provider based on the price of those services (e.g., directly or indirectly recommending a “boycott” of a product or service based on price).
3. Opinions that stray toward or may suggest prohibited activities cited above.