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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for NHS Tees Valley CCG

At OpenPrescribing we are piloting a number of data-driven approaches to identify unusual prescribing and collect feedback on this prescribing to inform development of new tools to support prescribers and organisations to audit and review prescribing. These pilot results are provided for the interest of advanced users, although we don't know how relevant they are in practice. There is substantial variation in prescribing behaviours, across various different areas of medicine. Some variation can be explained by demographic changes, or local policies or guidelines, but much of the remaining variation is less easy to explain.

The DataLab is keen to hear your feedback on the results. You can do this by completing the following survey or emailing us at [email protected]. Please DO NOT INCLUDE IDENTIFIABLE PATIENT information in your feedback. All feedback is helpful, you can send short or detailed feedback.

This report has been developed to automatically identify prescribing patterns at a chemical level which are furthest away from “typical prescribing” and can be classified as an “outlier”. We calculate the number of prescriptions for each chemical in the BNF coding system, the count of all prescriptions within that chemical's BNF subparagraph, for prescriptions dispensed between June 2021 and December 2021. We then calculate the ratio of these counts along with the mean and standard deviation of those ratios across all CCGs. From this we can calculate the “z-score”, which is a measure of how many standard deviations a given CCG is from the population mean. We then rank your “z-scores” to find the top 10 results where prescribing is an outlier for prescribing higher than its peers and those where it is an outlier for prescribing lower than its peers.

For each outlier chemical, a kernel density estimation plot of all CCG's chemical:subparagraph ratios is provided, with this CCG's ratio overlaid in red.

It is important to remember that this information was generated automatically and it is therefore likely that some of the behaviour is warranted. This report seeks only to collect information about where this variation may be warranted and where it might not, to inform research on this topic. Our full analytical method code is openly available on GitHub here.

This is a new, experimental feature. We'd love to .

Prescribing where NHS Tees Valley CCG is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Sodium aurothiomalate 1 Rheumatic disease suppressant drugs 17,575 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.20
Buserelin 5 Prostate cancer and gonadorelin analogues 8,384 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.89
Tetracosactide 3 Hypothalamic & anterior pituitary hormone & antioestrogens 24 0.12 0.01 0.02 5.38
Zinc paste 2 Barrier preparations 2,197 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.13
Ulipristal acetate (Emergency Contraceptive) 1 Progestogens and progesterone receptor modulators 5,314 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.43
Taurine 106 Amino acids and nutritional agents 164 0.65 0.05 0.14 4.22
Other calcium supplement preparations 387 Calcium supplements 3,513 0.11 0.03 0.02 3.90
Glucose and ketone blood testing reagents 2 Diabetic diagnostic and monitoring agents 55,434 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.81
Voriconazole 32 Triazole antifungals 4,269 0.01 0.00 0.00 3.39
Piroxicam 12,956 Rubefacients, topical NSAIDS, capsaicin and poultice 54,984 0.24 0.05 0.06 3.35

Prescribing where NHS Tees Valley CCG is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Other amino acidandnutritional agent preparations 58 Amino acids and nutritional agents 164 0.35 0.95 0.14 -4.22
Calcium carbonate 3,125 Calcium supplements 3,513 0.89 0.97 0.02 -3.69
Citalopram hydrobromide 100,726 Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors 460,567 0.22 0.32 0.04 -2.40
Folic acid 37,995 Drugs used in megaloblastic anaemias 94,063 0.40 0.67 0.12 -2.17
Sodium bicarbonate 880 Oral bicarbonate 882 1.00 1.00 0.00 -2.13
Moxonidine 1,520 Centrally-acting antihypertensive drugs 3,274 0.46 0.71 0.12 -2.01
Primidone 908 Control of epilepsy 342,324 0.00 0.01 0.00 -1.80
Etonogestrel 2 Parenteral progestogen-only contraceptives 12,752 0.00 0.11 0.06 -1.75
Fludroxycortide 149 Topical corticosteroids 83,308 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.69
Ipratropium bromide 1,664 Antimuscarinic bronchodilators 61,149 0.03 0.07 0.02 -1.62