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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for The Cedars Surgery

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

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Mercaptamine hydrochloride 2 Tear deficiency, eye lubricant/astringent 150 0.01 0.00 0.00 46.16
Other urological pain preparations 2 Drugs used in urological pain 2 1.00 0.00 0.06 15.77
Buprenorph hydrochloride/naloxone hydrochloride 14 Opioid dependence 22 0.64 0.01 0.07 8.98
Ketoprofen 124 Rubefacients, topical NSAIDS, capsaicin and poultice 347 0.36 0.02 0.06 5.60
Lodoxamide trometamol 8 Other anti-inflammatory preparations 36 0.22 0.01 0.04 5.50
Bromocriptine 3 Bromocriptine and other dopaminergic drugs 3 1.00 0.10 0.23 3.87
Tropicamide 1 Mydriatics and cycloplegics 2 0.50 0.02 0.12 3.83
Brimonidine tartrate 71 Treatment of glaucoma 716 0.10 0.03 0.02 3.78
Mercaptamine 3 Drugs used in metabolic disorders 3 1.00 0.07 0.25 3.70
Varenicline tartrate 3 Nicotine dependence 3 1.00 0.18 0.24 3.35

Prescribing where The Cedars Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Potassium citrate 0 Drugs used in urological pain 2 0.00 0.92 0.25 -3.67
    Cabergoline 0 Bromocriptine and other dopaminergic drugs 3 0.00 0.86 0.27 -3.17
      Combined ethinylestradiol 30mcg 237 Combined hormonal contraceptives 391 0.61 0.81 0.07 -2.83
      Acamprosate calcium 0 Alcohol dependence 4 0.00 0.83 0.31 -2.69
        Nicotine 0 Nicotine dependence 3 0.00 0.65 0.33 -1.95
          Insulin aspart 155 Short-acting insulins 265 0.58 0.79 0.11 -1.82
          Medroxyprogesterone acetate 26 Parenteral progestogen-only contraceptives 43 0.60 0.88 0.15 -1.81
          Clobetasol propionate 23 Topical corticosteroids 855 0.03 0.08 0.03 -1.78
          Amitriptyline hydrochloride 830 Tricyclic and related antidepressant drugs 1,168 0.71 0.84 0.08 -1.72
          Omeprazole 1,025 Proton pump inhibitors 4,392 0.23 0.50 0.16 -1.63