Data mining methods

Jodie Humphries

Data mining methods have been around for a while, being used in the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information - but what's the concern about the methods when it comes to healthcare and your prescriptions?

Have you ever given it much thought of who sees your prescription? You would think that it would be between you and your doctor, and possibly your health insurance company, but pharmaceutical companies are also aware of patient prescriptions. That's because these companies are keeping track of how many prescriptions for each drug the physician is writing, all in the form of data mining.

Collecting data

By collecting data from pharmacies and health insurers using data mining methods, pharmaceutical companies can learn the prescribing habits of thousands of doctors.

According to the LA Times, the information has become not just a powerful sales and marketing tool for the pharmaceutical industry, but also a source of growing concern among some elected officials, healthcare advocates and legal authorities.

Although the identity of the patient remains anonymous, details of what doctors are prescribing enables the drug makers to be more informed when their sales reps call on doctors. This data means that when their reps call on doctors, they can suggest alternative drugs which are made by their own companies.

Sales tactics

What worries some government officials and patient advocates is that keying sales tactics to an individual doctor's prescribing preferences, using data mining methods, may distort decision-making and fuel prescribing of new, high-cost drugs.

Legislation limiting or outlawing data mining methods has been passed in three states, has been considered in at least 20 others in recent years and has even been floated by federal lawmakers.

Many doctors have trouble finding time to examine the many studies and weigh up the results carefully, say critics of data mining methods. It makes doctors especially easy targets for drug reps armed with seemingly solid studies. And, given the rising concern over drug costs, free samples or other inducements could similarly influence decisions for non-medical reasons.

Data miners say they're actually helping to contain costs and improve quality by quickly providing doctors with information on which treatments work best.

The result, according to critics of data mining, is increased prescribing of the newest and costliest, though not necessarily more effective, drugs.

Legislation

Mined data have been employed by drug companies for years, but rising costs and complaints from physicians that it violates their privacy have prompted a search for legislative fixes. The concern over prescription data mining is part of a larger pattern of unease over the aggressiveness of drug companies' sales tactics.

Legislation requiring drug makers and other health product providers to disclose gifts, travel, entertainment and other items given to physicians has been folded into both the House and Senate versions of the healthcare overhaul bill.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main drug industry trade group, said in a statement that the group said use of prescriber records helps "companies properly educate doctors about prescription drugs and their characteristics [...] in a more targeted and expedited manner."

Drug companies spent US$6.5 billion on detailing in 2008, according to data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That doesn't include the value of samples, which had a retail value of US$15.9 billion in 2004, the most recent year for which the foundation had data, the LA Times states.

For now it appears the argument over data mining methods are going to continue with some believing them to be unethical, while the pharmaceutical industry argues that they are needed.