DeMarco Sebastian S, Paul Ravi, Kilpatrick Russell J
Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, 600 Moye Blvd, Greenville, NC 27834, United States.
East Carolina College of Business, Department of Management Information Systems, 344 Slay Hall, Greenville, NC 27858-4353, United States.
Int J Med Inform. 2015 Dec;84(12):1076-84. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2015.06.009. Epub 2015 Jul 15.
Despite the recent rising costs of once affordable dermatologic prescription medications, a survey measuring dermatologists' attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of the cost of drugs they commonly prescribe has not been conducted. Awareness of drug costs is hindered by a lack of access to data about the prices of medicines. No surveys of physicians have addressed this issue by proposing new information system technologies that augment prescription medication price transparency and measuring how receptive physicians are to using these novel solutions in their daily clinical practice. Our research aims to investigate these topics with a survey of physicians in dermatology.
Members of the North Carolina Dermatology Association were contacted through their electronic mailing list and asked to take an online survey. The survey asked several questions about dermatologists' attitudes and beliefs about drug costs. To measure their knowledge of prescription medications, the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost was used as an authoritative price that was compared to the survey takers' price estimates of drugs commonly used in dermatology. Physicians' willingness to use four distinct information system technologies that increase drug price transparency was also assessed.
Dermatologists believe drug costs are an important factor in patient care and believe access to price information would allow them to provide a higher quality of care. Dermatologists' knowledge of the costs of medicines they commonly prescribe is poor, but they want to utilize information system technologies that increase access to drug pricing information.
There is an unmet demand for information system technologies which increase price transparency of medications in dermatology. Physicians and IT professionals have the opportunity to create novel information systems that can be utilized to help guide cost conscious clinical decision making.
尽管曾经价格亲民的皮肤科处方药成本最近有所上涨，但尚未开展一项调查来衡量皮肤科医生对他们常用处方药成本的态度、信念和了解程度。获取药品价格数据的渠道匮乏，这阻碍了对药品成本的认知。以往没有针对医生的调查通过提出新的信息系统技术来提高处方药价格透明度，并衡量医生在日常临床实践中对使用这些新解决方案的接受程度，从而解决这一问题。我们的研究旨在通过对皮肤科医生进行调查来研究这些课题。
通过北卡罗来纳州皮肤科协会成员的电子邮件列表与他们取得联系，并邀请他们参加一项在线调查。该调查询问了几个关于皮肤科医生对药品成本的态度和信念的问题。为了衡量他们对处方药的了解程度，使用全国药品平均采购成本作为权威价格，并将其与调查对象对皮肤科常用药品的价格估计进行比较。此外，还评估了医生使用四种不同的信息系统技术以提高药品价格透明度的意愿。
皮肤科医生认为药品成本是患者护理中的一个重要因素，并认为获取价格信息将使他们能够提供更高质量的护理。皮肤科医生对他们常用处方药成本的了解较差，但他们希望利用能够增加药品定价信息获取渠道的信息系统技术。
对于提高皮肤科药品价格透明度的信息系统技术存在未满足的需求。医生和信息技术专业人员有机会创建新颖的信息系统，可用于帮助指导注重成本的临床决策。
