Physician Data Restriction Program



     
 

Does the collection of prescribing data
benefit physicians and patients?

Why is the AMA positioned
to offer this program?

 

 

Does the collection of prescribing data benefit physicians and patients?

The AMA's Physician Data Restriction Program (PDRP) provides physicians a choice while ensuring that vital information on prescribing patterns continues to be available for beneficial public health purposes. Some of these include evidence-based medical research, structuring clinical trials, efficient drug recalls, aiding the FDA's ongoing post-approval assessment of drug benefits vs. risks, and many other uses.


Collecting prescribing data can also benefit physicians by providing them with a self–evaluative tool that helps them compare prescribing data to evidenced-based guidelines.


Visit the AMA Therapeutic Insights Web site.

Why is the AMA positioned to offer this program?

AMA does not collect or license prescribing data
While the AMA does not collect, compile, license, sell or have access to physician prescribing data, it does offer individual physicians a choice in how their prescribing data are used. For over a century, the AMA has been recognized as a trusted source of physician practice, licensure, and medical education data. The AMA licenses these data to prevent fraud and abuse, for physician manpower planning, to verify physician credentials in accordance with the standards of accreditation organizations and by government officials during times of national disaster like Sept. 11th and Hurricane Katrina.

Physician professional data are also licensed to Healthcare Organizations (HIOs) who append prescribing data to the data they license from the AMA for use by pharmaceutical companies. Although the AMA licenses physician practice data to the HIOs, these organizations have multiple sources of physician data independent of the AMA that enable them to collect and license prescribing data without licensing AMA data.

The fact that AMA data are utilized by the HIOs enables the AMA to exert regulations on how physician data are used as well as offer programs such as the PDRP which empowers physicians. Compliance with such programs is mandated through AMA licensing agreements.