E-drug: No privacy.... Drug reps know all
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Dear E-druggers,
This came from a psychiatric nurse friend in Seattle Washington headed
'For those of you who prescribe or deal with those who do, please note the
following'. The 'action' is in Canada. IMS is active in many countries. I
believe that information is collected by IMS in Australia from
participating doctors on prescriptions and indications and data is
aggregated for sale but prescribers identity remains confidential. I don't
know if pharmacies are engaged by IMS in this country (Australia).
Ric Day
The following information (stripped of identifying information) was posted to
another list by a physician and is reposted here with the writers permission.
=================repost follows==========================
Dear Listmates, I may have been naive or in denial, but a few evenings ago I
had an eye opening experience related to medication prescriptions and I am
not sure how to process it. I dined at a friend's home and, among the
guests, was a pharmaceutical rep, with her laptop computer in tow. I
mentioned to her that a rep at my office recently told me she knew I wrote
for drug xxx, and I inquired how she might have known that.
The dinner guest booted up and ran me through a database of 900 doctors in
her "territory." It was an extremely powerful and user friendly database
where one could search by literally dozens of parameters including age,
location, medications prescribed per week, month, year, individual or group
prescribing trends, the date, year etc of each physician's medical school
and undergrad experience, number of children, etc, etc. The detail and
analytic possibilities were endless. I think she even had a record of which
types of gift item each preferred. She pointed to one name, which she
researched by birthdays in April of all physicians between the ages of 35
and 65 who have written more than x number of prescriptions for the
following two classes of medication. She had used this data in her decision
to throw him a surprise office lunch party the week prior.
I felt rather naked seeing how much information about us was known and
manipulated by the companies, and the numbers of individuals with access. I
inquired how they knew how many prescriptions each doctor had written that
week for what meds, and she said the drug stores SELL that information to
the drug companies. Or at least around 80% do, she thought. The Duane Reed
chain, she recalled, for example, refused. I would love to know what others
think about this, and what effect we believe, individually or collectively,
this has on our medication prescribing practices. I apologize if this is
considered off topic. Regards, XXXX
=======another post by the same physician follows=================
After reading the first batch of replies, I wish to add the following: The
pharm rep dinner guest informed me that the information purchased by her
company (and presumably all the companies) from the drug stores did NOT
contain any information about specific patients. I do not see how this would
help them anyway, since doctors are the customers, in the sense that it is
we who choose the medications for our patients. Diaper companies do not gear
their ads for kids, but for their parents, who make the decisions.
Also, in response to XXXX comments ("The privacy is there if you seek it
out. Why meet with drug reps? Why go to their meetings? Why talk with these
guys?..."), it does not matter whether we talk to them, at least in terms of
their ability to shatter our privacy. They get their info from other sources
(the drug stores). And finally, one detail I omitted in my original post:
The reps get paid in accordance with the number of prescriptions written for
their meds by their assigned doctor group. The more you write Prozac, the
more your Prozac rep gets paid, and this is all determined by info supplied
behind our backs, and over which we have no control.
==============end of reposted mail========================
This is a followup to the last message and takes place in Canada.
Ric Day
VICTORIA,CANADA -- The provincial government has amended the bylaws of the
College of Pharmacists of British Columbia prohibiting pharmacists from
selling information obtained from a prescription which would reveal the
identity of the prescriber or patient, Health Minister Joy MacPhail
announced today.
"This action represents an extraordinary measure on the part of
government but comes after more than a year of trying unsuccessfully to
persuade the college to change its bylaws to prohibit the sale of
prescription information that enables drug companies to target sales
presentations to physicians," said MacPhail.
In March 1996, it was reported in the news media that IMS Canada Ltd.
marketing firm was buying prescriber information from 300 B.C.
pharmacies on a regular basis. The reports indicated that IMS would then
sell the data to multinational drug companies to use in targeting drug
promotions to individual physicians.
"Despite my reservations about using cabinet's extraordinary power in
this matter, I believe that drug companies should not be allowed to buy
information on doctors' prescribing habits. And I believe that the
public expects the government to take the action needed to ensure that
the sale of this information is not permitted."
The College of Physicians and Surgeons also opposes the sale of
prescriber information.
The information being sold by pharmacists does not come from the
ministry's PharmaNet computer network, which has been designed to
protect the privacy of patients and physicians.
http://www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/cpa/newsrel/1997/087.html
----
Richard DAY, MD FRACP
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Director Clinical Pharmacology &
Toxicology,
St Vincent's Hospital, Victoria St., Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia, 2010
Tel: 61-(0)2-9361-2331 Fax: 61-(0)2-9361-2724
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