Gartner: Pharma slow to update IT for coming mandate

14.04.2006
Many pharmaceutical companies have not made needed changes to IT systems to comply with a new American Medical Association (AMA) mandate that goes into effect July 1 and allows physicians to restrict access to data about their prescribing behavior, according to Gartner Inc.

Pharmaceutical firms will face challenges related to the mandate -- which will require changes to sales force automation systems -- and may be denied access to detailed data about the drugs physicians prescribe and how often they prescribe them, according to a March research report from Gartner.

The AMA mandate provides an 'opt-out' provision for physicians who do not want pharmaceutical sales representatives to have access to their prescribing information, said Dale Hagemeyer, a Gartner analyst. 'There is a feeling from physicians that pharmaceutical representatives have all sorts of data about them and they are browbeating them,' Hagemeyer said.

Most pharmaceutical companies buy detailed data about the drug prescribing behavior of individual physicians -- stripped of any information that would identify a patient -- from companies that obtain it from pharmacies. The pharmaceutical companies can obtain more than 10 different 'sliced and diced' views of the data. Routinely, they use it in their internal marketing departments and for their field sales representatives.

Under the coming mandate, marketing departments can still have full access to the information -- even after a physician opts out -- but the data cannot be shared with field sales representatives or their sales managers.

A 2004 AMA poll indicated that about 27 percent of physicians would opt out, if given the chance, according to Hagemeyer. However, an informal Gartner poll last month of 10 pharmaceutical companies found that only 20 percent will be compliant by the July 1 deadline, he said. 'The implication is that these marketing departments are going to have to do the analysis and tell the representatives where to go, who to see and what to say,' he said.