In attempting to tackle a complex issue, Dr. Zoutman has missed some key points, misrepresented IMS s current practice, and reached conclusions that have the potential to harm health-related research in this country, by compromising the availability of information to improve the quality of health and the effectiveness of the health care system.
Several sentences require correction in that they are misleading.
While individual estimates of prescribing practice are compiled by IMS, only the individual physician can obtain, upon written request, a report on his or her individual prescribing practice. The data are only released to the pharmaceutical industry in aggregated form, where a physician is identified as part of a group. Our practices have been approved in Quebec by our Health Information Advisory Board, which has strong physician representation. Dr. Zoutman omits to mention this fact when he provides a very brief and misleading description of the requirements of this new law. No other organization, public or private has undergone such independent scrutiny.