Drug reps and prescribing data: Doctors can choose to say no

A new AMA program allows physicians to elect not to have information on their prescribing patterns shared with pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Editorial. June 12, 2006.

"Doctor, why haven't you prescribed any of x drug?"

No physician should have to hear such a sentence from a pharmaceutical sales representative. That kind of grilling over prescribing decisions crosses a privacy line that shouldn't be breached. Yet armed with physician-specific prescribing data, some sales people are using this tactic and other pushy methods to pressure doctors to write scripts for their drugs.

Now physicians have a painless way to push back.

The American Medical Association last month announced creation of the Prescribing Data Restriction Program, which allows doctors to opt out of having their prescribing information shared with drug reps.

This step is a direct response to physician complaints about detailers' inappropriate behavior. The AMA House of Delegates in December 2004 and in June 2005 called on the Association to create a way for physicians to choose to shield their information.

Physicians who select this option will be flagged in the AMA's Masterfile, a database that contains such information as a physician's name, address and specialty. Health care information organizations buy this basic data, check it against similar materials they've already gathered from elsewhere and then combine it with prescribing information from pharmacies to develop a physician profile. They then sell these profiles to drugmakers, academia and the government.

All entities that purchase the data will now be contractually obliged to adhere to the opt-out program's restrictions on how the Masterfile can be used.