States fight to shield docs from drug data mining

IMS Health executives argue that without their products drug companies would have to hire even larger sales forces, because they wouldn't be able to target their efforts.

But state lawmakers note that in the decade since 1993, when IMS launched its prescription tracking system, spending on drug promotion rose 300 percent and company sales forces doubled to more than 100,000 representatives.

"The word for how I felt is 'violated,'" said Dr. Gary Sobelson, a New Hampshire doctor who supports the data restriction efforts. "They knew things about my prescribing habits that I didn't know myself."

Attorneys for New Hampshire and Maine say their laws, which ban or limit the sale of prescription data, protect the privacy of doctors and patients. But judges in both states rejected that argument, noting that all patient names are deleted from prescribing records. They also said that restricting access to the information violates the First Amendment guarantee to free speech. Vermont delayed implementing its own law until 2009, after seeing the challenges its neighbors faced.

"We have no privacy issues here," said Randolph Frankel, vice president with Norwalk, Conn.-based IMS Health. "What we do have are organizations using this as a platform for their own political agendas," He said national groups, including AARP, continue supporting the data restriction effort despite court judgments against it.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court in Boston heard an appeal of New Hampshire's case earlier this year and is expected announce a decision this month. If the court decides the law is in fact constitutional, it could open the flood gates to similar efforts across the country.

And while no federal lawmakers are discussing a national ban on data mining, the issue has attracted scrutiny from some on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Herb Kohl has begun pressing the American Medical Association about its role in helping data-mining companies identify individual doctors.

After IMS and other companies buy prescribing data from pharmacies, they rely on AMA's databases to match the numbers with individual physician identities. The AMA generated more than $46 million from the sale of database information last year.

But the group pointed out in an April letter that doctors can ask that their information not be shared with drug salespeople. Kohl fired back, noting that less than a third of physicians are aware of that option. The Wisconsin Democrat, who chairs the Senate Committee on Aging, is pressuring the group to make it easier for doctors to keep their prescribing information confidential.