Prescription Data in Australia: How Useful is this ‘Big' Data?

Objectives:
Detailed prescription data is difficult to get access to Australia. Health care is heavily subsidised in Australia and information on government paid medical services paid including pharmaceutical scripts is collected by the Commonwealth. This abstract seeks to uncover the process with which the data can be obtained and assess its usage in terms of reimbursement submissions to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).

Methods:
A review of previous applications to get access to prescription data was performed. Prescription data was analysed according to the current PBAC guidelines and ISPOR good practice guidelines to assess applicability for reimbursement submissions in Australia.

Results:
The review of previous applications revealed that multiple steps are involved with getting access to Australian prescription data. Pharmaceutical companies can obtain data directly from the Australian Government’s Department of Human Services (DHS) but this can be a long and complicated process. Usually companies contract a third party vendor (TPV) licensed by the DHS to hold a 10% patient sample of prescription data. All requests for data or analyses must be approved by the DHS External Request Evaluation Committee. This information is used to inform current usage of reimbursed drugs as well as budget impact of new drugs. There are examples of successful attempts of getting access to 100% of prescription data for special populations. Moreover Medicare services data such as blood test and scans is also collected but not linked up with prescription data.

Conclusions:
Obtaining prescription data in Australia is not uncommon, however a rigorous process needs to be navigated and therefore people often use a TPV. Furthermore the possibility of linking Medicare services data with prescription data is exciting as it will provide possibilities for reducing uncertainty in health technology assessments with respect to health economic modelling and broader impact on health care budgets.