Data on Information Technology Reported by Chun Mun Thum and Colleagues (An exploratory analysis of general practitioner prescribing patterns in Malaysia using a health insurance claims database): Information Technology

2022 JAN 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Information Technology is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Selangor, Malaysia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To determine the prescribing patterns and identify potentially inappropriate prescribing practices among general practitioners in the private primary care sector by analysing a large electronic health insurance claims database. Medical claims records from February 2019 to February 2020 were extracted from a health insurance claims database.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research, “Data cleaning and data analysis were performed using Python 3.7 with the Pandas, NumPy and Matplotlib libraries. The top five most common diagnoses were identified, and for each diagnosis, the most common medication classes and medications prescribed were quantified. Potentially inappropriate prescribing practices were identified by comparing the medications prescribed with relevant clinical guidelines. The five most common diagnoses were upper respiratory tract infection (41.5%), diarrhoea (7.7%), musculoskeletal pain (7.6%), headache (6.7%) and gastritis (4.0%). Medications prescribed by general practitioners were largely as expected for symptomatic management of the respective conditions. One area of potentially inappropriate prescribing identified was inappropriate antibiotic choice. Same-class polypharmacy that may lead to an increased risk of adverse events were also identified, primarily involving multiple paracetamol-containing products, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and antihistamines. Other areas of non-adherence to guidelines identified included the potential overuse of oral corticosteroids and oral salbutamol, and inappropriate gastroprotection for patients receiving NSAIDs. While prescribing practices are generally appropriate within the private primary care sector, there remain several areas where some potentially inappropriate prescribing occurs.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The areas identified should be the focus in continuing efforts to improve prescribing practices to obtain the optimal clinical outcomes while reducing unnecessary risks and healthcare costs.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: An exploratory analysis of general practitioner prescribing patterns in Malaysia using a health insurance claims database. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 2021. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; International Journal of Pharmacy Practice - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)2042-7174)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Chun Mun Thum, HealthMetrics, Selangor, Malaysia. Additional authors for this research include Wen Sing Su and Jason S. E. Loo.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpp/riab075. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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