CMA and IMS Health will soon launch a pilot program that will give physicians access to detailed reports of their personal prescribing patterns. The program is intended to improve quality of care by helping physicians evaluate their prescribing habits and compare them to regional and national patterns.

This pioneering study is the result of more than four years of negotiations and discussions on the use of physicians' prescribing data, which is routinely sold to pharmaceutical companies and shared with government agencies and research institutes. Until now, however, physicians themselves were unable to access that information.

California has for years wrestled with prescription data tracking issues, twice sponsoring legislation that would have banned the sale of prescription data for commercial purposes. CMA decided to participate in this pilot program so that we might find a thoughtful compromise that will help physicians, patients, and pharmaceutical research. CMA and AMA understand, however, that some physicians are concerned about the misuse of prescribing data by overzealous pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Responding to these concerns, AMA in July launched the Prescribing Data Restriction Program, which allows physicians to deny access to their prescribing data to all pharmaceutical sales representatives and to health information organizations, such as IMS, that compile and sell physician prescribing data. Physicians can restrict access to their prescribing data for three-year periods, regardless of their membership status in AMA.

CMA is seeking 100 physicians who have not restricted access to their prescribing data to participate in the pilot program, which will focus on the treatment of migraine headaches. Participants will receive an educational newsletter that will explore the condition, national treatment practices, major drug therapies, and physician prescribing patterns on a state and national level. Accompanying the newsletter will be the physician's own prescribing data for purposes of comparison.

Click here here to apply for this pilot project.

Contact: Joe Greaves, 916/444-5532 or jgreaves@cmanet.org.