Many states are looking to prescription databases to help fight the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic across the United States, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Here are three takeaways on the issue:
- States using these databases are analyzing the data to probe physicians for practices that could put their medical licenses at risk, according to the article.
- The Wall Street Journal cites a study by Yuhua Bao, a healthcare policy and research expert at Weill Cornell Medicine, published in June in the journal Health Affairs, which found a link between the use of state databases in 24 states and a 30 percent decline in the prescribing rate for opioids such as OxyContin between 2001 and 2010. The article notes, however, that the study did point out that the decrease probably isn't entirely due to monitoring programs.
- Some physicians and civil libertarians have expressed concerns about states using databases in this way, as they worry the more aggressive scrutiny of their prescribing could jeopardize patient privacy and due-process protection for physicians, according to the article.
For more on this story and a look at how specific states are using these databases, read Scott Calvert and Arian Campo-Flores' full report in The Wall Street Journal.
More articles on population health issues:
E-cigarette, cigar industries target FDA tobacco rule
Study: Teen pregnancy declines attributed to contraceptives
10 states with the highest, lowest obesity rates