Prescribing Snoops – Are they At It in Australia?

The following rather chilling, for me, article appeared a few days ago.

http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070930/FOSTERS01/709300094/-1/CITIZEN

Rx data mining: Improving health care or invading privacy?

Dr. Deborah Harrigan remembers the day two pharmaceutical company representatives told her she wasn't prescribing enough of a drug they sold.

The Rochester family physician, who was working at the city's Avis Goodwin Community Health Center at the time, said she was surprised they knew so much about her prescribing history.

The information comes from data mining companies, which collect, analyze and sell details about the type of prescriptions Harrigan and other physicians write. The practice isn't without controversy — Harrigan, for example, said she believes doctors at least should be told if their data is being collected and sold. That isn't now required.

But, she added, the ultimate power does nonetheless lie with doctors.

"We still have the prescription pen in our hands," she said.

….. (go to the URL above to read the full article).

I must say I find this second hand use of information (which comes from an insurer and is provided to research companies for a fee and who then charge the drug companies for the information) for which no consent to use or charge for is obtained is offensive.

I am aware that at least three US States have passed laws to try and outlaw the practice – but because these data collections are a $US 2.0Billion industry the legal process is well and truly off and rolling with a final decision likely to wind up with the US Supreme Court. Somehow the data aggregators are claiming it is a ‘free speech’ issue. Beats me how this could be so, but as they say ‘only in America’.

In Australia, the most centralised prescribing data is gathered by Medicare Australia, but this is held very closely and so is not easily accessible to the drug companies other than in aggregate form. So there should be less possibility of pestering from ‘big pharma’. Of course, the Government can, and does, profile the data, and will certainly let the practitioner know if their prescribing pattern seems to far from accepted norms. I see this as a valid and reasonable, if slightly intrusive, activity.

Drug information is also held in GP and Pharmacist computer systems and it is always possible this information could be gathered and utilised. One would hope this would only happen with the knowledge and consent of both the prescriber and other involved professionals.

There have been rumours over the years of ‘backdoors’ in prescribing and dispensing computers which could have allowed such data to be collected covertly – at least as far as the patient and / or the clinician is concerned. I have no idea if this is true or not but would love to have a comment from any reader who knows more!

Data-mining is all very well in its place but what is described in the article above seems a little over the top to me!

David.