LOS ANGELES - An online prescription drug database that allows
doctors and pharmacists to track a patient's medication history
instantly and deter addicts from "doctor-shopping" is expected to
launch statewide next year, officials announced Wednesday.
The $3.5 million system, the largest online prescription drug
database in the United States, will be funded through a combination
of private and public money.
"What we're seeing is people doctor-shopping and getting two or
three prescription drugs and going out and abusing them or selling
them," state Attorney General Jerry Brown said. "If California
puts this information online, with real-time access, it will give
authorized doctors and pharmacies the technology they need to fight
prescription drug abuse, which is burdening our health-care
system."
Currently, the Attorney General's Office receives more than
60,000 requests from doctors and pharmacies for patient
prescription history information, but the process is arduous.
Requests are made by fax or phone and can take several days to
process, Brown said.
Emergency room visits related to the nonmedical use of
pharmaceuticals, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs,
increased 21 percent from 2004 to 2005, the latest data available,
according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration. The majority of these visits involved multiple
drugs.
The idea for the database was spawned three years ago by Bob and
Carmen Pack, a Danville, Calif., couple whose two children were
killed in a car crash in 2003 by a driver who was under the
influence of six prescription drugs obtained from multiple doctors.
The couple founded the Troy and Alana Pack Foundation, named
after their son and daughter, which will help raise more than half
the $3.5 million needed to launch the Web site and maintain it for
the next few years.
The foundation is working with Kaiser Permanente, the California
State Board of Pharmacy and the Attorney General's Office to
develop the new database.
"I'm very proud of the attorney general for his willingness to
be a part of this," Bob Pack said, adding that the doctors who
gave the driver who killed his children the six drugs never talked
to each other.
Pack said the second phase of the database also will help law
enforcement officials track down physicians or so-called "Dr.
Feelgoods" who might be doling out prescription drugs for profit.
"It would be wonderful if you could go to a database and find
out immediately," said pharmacist Michael Hall, who works at
Capitol Drugs in Sherman Oaks. "Cases like that come up very
regularly."
Consumer watchdog groups say privacy measures should be in place
before the database is launched.
"We understand and appreciate the goal of this, but what we're
saying is that as more and more of our medical records are put
online, consumers are more at risk of having their information
stolen or broken into by hackers," said Jerry Flanagan,
health-care policy director for Santa Monica-based Consumer
Watchdog.
"It has to have a clear safety mechanism so that patients don't
have their records exposed to the public."
Brown and other state officials said the database will be
operated through the Department of Justice rather than a
third-party company, and will include several layers of security
features to deter hacking.
c.2008 Los Angeles Daily News