E-drug: No privacy.... Drug reps know all (3)
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A friend of mine showed me the pharamacy database that is in use here in
the US. He wrote it and made it work. He stated that 10,000 pharmacies
were hooked in to in 1993. (Walgreens, Osco,etc.)He said that all drug
companies bought info from them on a monthly basis. The key was to see
what Drs. were prescribing and not perscribing and then preasure the
ones not prescribing. I thought this had the potential for abuse. The
info is stagering. At this time patient info was not available, but this
was in 1993.
At the hospital I work at, the computerized charting is warehoused at a
national site and not local. I thought this was strange, but the
computer people said that all patient info from all hospitals would
eventially be located at this or other similar sites. The idea is so
that an insurance person can site at their desk and review a patient
chart and determine billing and never go to the hospital to review a
chart. Interesting concept but again the potential for abuse and misuse
is there.
D.Reece
Email: dreece@primenet.com
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