[privacy] Doctors, Legislators Resist Drugmakers' Prying Eyes

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/21/AR2007052101
701_pf.html
 
Doctors, Legislators Resist Drugmakers' Prying Eyes


By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; A01




Seattle pediatrician Rupin Thakkar's first inkling that the pharmaceutical
industry was peering over his shoulder and into his prescription pad came in
a letter from a drug representative about the generic drops Thakkar
prescribes to treat infectious pinkeye.

In the letter, the salesperson wrote that Thakkar was causing his patients
to miss more days of school than they would if he put them on Vigamox, a
more expensive brand-name medicine made by Alcon Laboratories.

"My initial thought was 'How does she know what I'm prescribing?' " Thakkar
said. "It feels intrusive. . . . I just feel strongly that medical
encounters need to be private."

He is not alone. Many doctors object to drugmakers' common practice of
contracting with data-mining companies to track exactly which medicines
physicians prescribe and in what quantities -- information marketers and
salespeople use to fine-tune their efforts. The industry defends the
practice as a way of better educating physicians about new drugs.

Now the issue is bubbling up in the political arena. Last year, New
Hampshire became the first state to try to curtail the practice, but a
federal district judge three weeks ago ruled the law unconstitutional.

This year, more than a dozen states have considered similar legislation,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. They include
Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Nevada, Rhode
Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington, although the results so far have been
limited. Bills are stalled in some states, and in others, such as Maryland
and West Virginia, they did not pass at the committee level.

The concerns are not merely about privacy. Proponents say using such
detailed data for drug marketing serves mainly to influence physicians to
prescribe more expensive medicines, not necessarily to provide the best
treatment.

"We don't like the practice, and we want it to stop," said Jean
Silver-Isenstadt, executive director of the National Physicians Alliance, a
two-year-old group with 10,000 members, most of them young doctors in
training. (Thakkar is on the group's board of directors.) "We think it's a
contaminant to the doctor-patient relationship, and it's driving up costs."

The American Medical Association, a larger and far more established group,
makes millions of dollars each year by helping data-mining companies link
prescribing data to individual physicians. It does so by licensing access to
the AMA Physician Masterfile, a database containing names, birth dates,
educational background, specialties and addresses for more than 800,000
doctors.

After complaints from some members, the AMA last year began allowing doctors
to "opt out" and shield their individual prescribing information from
salespeople, although drug companies can still get it. So far, 7,476 doctors
have opted out, AMA officials said.

"That gives the physician the choice," said Jeremy A. Lazarus, a Denver
psychiatrist and high-ranking AMA official.

...

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