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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