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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for Fountains PCN

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 PCNs. From this we can calculate the “z-score”, which is a measure of how many standard deviations a given PCN 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 PCN's chemical:subparagraph ratios is provided, with this PCN'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 Fountains PCN is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Gluten free pastas 2 Foods for special diets 377 0.01 0.00 0.00 19.59
Gluten free/wheat free cereals 1 Foods for special diets 377 0.00 0.00 0.00 17.80
Phenylephrine hydrochloride 8 Mydriatics and cycloplegics 55 0.15 0.00 0.01 9.85
Amiloride hydrochloride with loop diuretics 13 Potassium sparing diuretics and compounds 42 0.31 0.01 0.04 7.94
Other soothing haemorrhoidal preparations 10 Soothing haemorrhoidal preparations 73 0.14 0.00 0.02 7.61
Apomorphine hydrochloride 44 Dopaminergic drugs used in parkinsonism 1,438 0.03 0.00 0.00 6.65
Cyproterone acetate 74 Prostate cancer and gonadorelin analogues 308 0.24 0.03 0.04 5.51
Cyproterone acetate 3 Male sex hormones and antagonists 1,608 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.00
Salicylic acid 1 Drugs for oral ulceration and inflammation 155 0.01 0.00 0.00 3.57
Gluten free/low protein bread 25 Foods for special diets 377 0.07 0.01 0.02 3.54

Prescribing where Fountains PCN is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Citalopram hydrobromide 3,320 Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors 18,111 0.18 0.32 0.05 -2.52
Prednisolone 2,105 Use of corticosteroids 2,568 0.82 0.89 0.03 -2.37
Quinine sulfate 477 Antimalarials 663 0.72 0.90 0.08 -2.34
Hydroxychloroquine sulfate 277 Rheumatic disease suppressant drugs 2,189 0.13 0.36 0.11 -2.09
Furosemide 2,921 Loop diuretics 4,118 0.71 0.85 0.07 -2.00
Ganciclovir 0 Antivirals 1 0.00 0.65 0.33 -2.00
    Terbinafine hydrochloride 33 Antifungal preparations 600 0.06 0.14 0.05 -1.82
    Carbomer 940/980 168 Tear deficiency, eye lubricant/astringent 1,169 0.14 0.34 0.11 -1.80
    Naftidrofuryl oxalate 3 Peripheral vasodilators and related drugs 14 0.21 0.67 0.28 -1.67
    Prucalopride 26 Other drugs used in constipation 61 0.43 0.73 0.19 -1.66