Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 17.3 Illustration of
sample dispensation
Table 17.3 Summary statistics of selected sample usage measures for top 150 brands
Sample
given/
TWRx
NWRx with
sample/
NWRx (%)
RWRx with
sample/
RWRx (%)
Sample
only/sample
given (%)
Sample
only/
NWRx
Descriptive
statistics
SO/
TWRx
Mean
0.28
0.14
22
7
42
0.31
Median
0.19
0.08
22
6
45
0.28
Standard
deviation
0.24
0.15
12
6
17
0.24
Maximum
1.31
0.84
55
42
76
1.26
Minimum
0.00
0.00
0
0
0
0.00
17.2.6
Sample Dispensing Patterns
Typically, a physician has three options when prescribing a drug to a patient, as
illustrated in Fig. 17.3 : prescription treatment (either new or renewal), sample only
treatment, or prescription treatment with sample.
As a concrete illustration of sample dispensation patterns, we provide a descrip-
tive analysis of the top 150 most promoted (based on detailing volume) brands that
primary care physicians prescribed in the USA. The data comes from the ImpactRx
sample treatment audit and was for the year 2010. There are several basic data
notions to be explained here. TWRx stands for total written prescriptions, which is
the sum of new prescriptions and renewal prescriptions written 2 by physicians.
Similarly, NWRx stands for newly written prescriptions, which are new prescrip-
tions written by physicians. We constructed the following metrics at brand level to
measure sample usage and provided the summary statistics of these metrics for 150
brands in Table 17.3 .
2 The ImpactRx data is collected from its physician panel; therefore, the prescriptions are “written”
by physicians but may not be “dispensed” through pharmacies which have certain degree of pre-
scription switching power. To distinguish from the normally used “dispensed” prescription data
obtained from pharmacy audit, ImpactRx uses “written” prescription measure.
 
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