Physician Data Restriction 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 selfevaluative tool that helps them compare
prescribing data to evidenced-based guidelines.
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.