Since the early 1990s, health care information companies havebought electronic records of prescriptions from pharmacies andother sources and linked them with information about doctorsthat is licensed from the Physician Masterfile of the AmericanMedical Association (AMA). These information companies, thelargest of which is IMS Health of Fairfield, Connecticut, havethen compiled and sold individual physicians' prescribing datato pharmaceutical manufacturers. The business is lucrative.But a growing number of physicians have rebelled after becomingaware that drug companies have access to their data —in some cases because zealous sales agents have confronted themwith their . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Dr. Steinbrook (rsteinbrook@attglobal.net) is a national correspondent for the Journal.
An interview with Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive officer of the California Medical Association, can be heard at www.nejm.org.
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