ONGOING SURVEY ON MEDICAL PRESCIPTIONS
ORGANIZATIONS IN CHARGE OF THE SURVEY
- Irdes (interpretation and analysis of data)
- IMS Health (provision of data)
SURVEY'S FOCUS
- Characteristics of private-practice physicians (socio-demographic profile, activity, type of practice, location, speciality).
- Socio-demographic et socio-economic characteristics of physicians' patients.
- Characteristics of the encounter (location).
- Reason for seeking care or diagnosed morbidity.
- Physicians' prescriptions.
- Analysis of the impact of official medical practice guidelines (RMO, Références médicales opposables).
- Prescriptions for high blood pressure.
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS
Date of the Survey
Ongoing survey conducted quarterly by IMS Health since December 1991.
Scope of the survey
- All private-practice physicians in continental France who write allopathic prescriptions (GPs, interns, cardiologists, dermatologists, gastro-enterologists, gynecologists, neuropsychiatrists, ophtalmologists, ear, nose, and throat specialists, pediatrists, pneumologists, rhumatologists, urologists, endocrinologists, phlebologists)
- All patients seen by each physician during a seven-day period in his private, out-patient practice.
Sampling frame
IMS Health files
Method
- Sample of physicians by speciality, location of practice, size of the city, and physician's age.
- Each physician sends a record sheet for consultations (date, place, sex, age, patient's profession, diagnosis or reason for consultation, indication as to whether the patient is a first-timer or a regular, desired effect of the prescription).
- Reception of copies of the physician's prescription sheet as well as the entirety of his prescriptions.
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