With a recent Supreme Court decision adding Vermont to the majority of U.S. states where it's legal to use physicians' prescribing records for marketing purposes, doctors should recognize the implications of data mining on their practice as well as their ability to opt out.
As a result of the controversial ruling, which deemed the practice of data mining part of pharmaceutical companies' First Amendment rights, physicians in all states except Maine and New Hampshire are subject to having their prescription data sold without their consent. Although pharmacies remove patient-identifying information before selling the records to health information organizations, critics of data mining contend that it puts confidentiality and the doctor-patient relationship at risk, particularly in rural areas where it might be relatively easy to tie a physician's name to a particular patient's condition, Physicians Practice reports.
And despite the noted non-commercial benefits of data mining, including medical research, physicians also should be cognizant of how highly targeted pharmaceutical marketing might influence their prescribing decisions. "If a physician is profiled as a certain type of prescriber, pharmaceutical companies may be tailoring their salesmen to cater to that provider's needs," notes Physicians Practice. "Physicians need to be sure to keep informed of all their options--not just the options salesmen think will appeal to them."
To help address these concerns, the American Medical Association in 2006 created the Physician Data Restriction Program, which allows physicians to opt out of having their information sold to pharmaceutical detailers while still allowing it to be available for academic and governmental research. To date, nearly 28,000 physicians have used the PDRP to restrict their data, according to a press release. The program is available to all U.S. physicians regardless of AMA membership status.
To learn more:
- read this article and blog post from the Wall Street Journal
- see the story from the Burlington Free Press
- check out this post from Physicians Practice (reg. required)
- see this statement from the AMA
- read the Supreme Court's opinion (.pdf)