Improving the way opioids are prescribed through clinical practice guidelines can ensure patients have access to safer, more effective chronic pain treatment while reducing the number of people who misuse, abuse, or overdose from these drugs. 
 
 CDC developed and published the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain to provide recommendations for the prescribing of opioid pain medication for patients 18 and older in primary care settings. Recommendations focus on the use of opioids in treating chronic pain (pain lasting longer than 3 months or past the time of normal tissue healing) outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. SUBSCRIBE 
 
 A news organization that set up a database to track prescribing habits of doctors found out some people were using it to shop around for doctors more likely to give them addictive painkillers. 
 
 ProPublica, which specializes in investigative reporting, said it was immediately making the startling discovery public, and would add extra warnings about the dangers of misusing the drugs. 
 
 Prescription pills in a yellow bottle. Roberto Machado Noa / LightRocket via Getty Images 
 
 “This is not a new problem for journalists, or others whose business is providing or sharing information. In another era, burglars would read the obituary pages so they could target the homes of people who had just died,” Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica’s editor-in-chief, wrote in a statement. 
 
 “As a news organization dedicated to pursuing stories with ‘moral force,’ we feel we also have an obligation to look hard at possible misuses of our journalism,” he added. 
 
 The database was set up in 2013 to track what types of drugs were being prescribed by Medicare doctors. 
 
 Related: Opioid Abuse Costs Employers 
 
 “The data showed doctors often prescribed narcotic painkillers and antipsychotic drugs in quantities that could be dangerous for their patients, many of whom were elderly,” Engelberg added. 
 
 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the overuse of opioid painkillers is driving a worsening addiction crisis. 
 
 Journalists used it to write stories, ProPublica said. Others have used it, too — including doctors trying to see how they stack up against colleagues, said Engelberg. 
 
 “Law enforcement officials searched the database for leads on fraud and illicit trafficking in pain medications,” he added. 
 
 "Many readers also arrived at Prescriber Checkup after web searches like 'doctors who prescribe narcotics easily' or 'doctors that will prescribe anything'." "Many readers also arrived at Prescriber Checkup after web searches like 'doctors who prescribe narcotics easily' or 'doctors that will prescribe anything'." 
 
 “Recently, though, we picked up clear signs that some readers are using the data for another purpose: To search for doctors likely to prescribe them some widely abused drugs, many of them opioids.” 
 
 For instance, a suspicious number of people were using a formula, meant for journalists, that would bring up the names of physicians who most frequently prescribed narcotics. 
 
 "According to our web data, many readers also arrived at Prescriber Checkup after web searches like 'doctors who prescribe narcotics easily' or 'doctors that will prescribe anything,'" Engelberg said. 
 
 The practice of doctor-shopping is nothing new. The CDC says it’s one way people who shouldn’t be taking prescription narcotics are getting them. Some patients get prescriptions from multiple doctors. 
 
 Engelberg pointed out that the federal government at first resisted providing the information used on the site, but now has its own, similar web database. 
 
 Related: New CDC Painkiller Guidelines Say to Use Less 
 
 “We continue to believe that Prescriber Checkup provides significant and beneficial insights into prescribing patterns — insights that can help patients, practitioners, regulators and a variety of other users,” he said. 
 
 Adding a warning about the dangers of narcotics on any pages mentioning them may help, Engelberg said. 
 
 NBC News will also link to advice on their use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and have written a story on the growing public health crisis arising from the abuse prescription pain medication. We will continue to report on this issue, as we’ve done previously. ||||| Prescriber Checkup 
 
 Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program serves more than 42 million people and pays for more than one of every four prescriptions written nationwide. Use this tool to find and compare doctors and other providers in Part D in 2015. Related Story » 
 
 Interested in downloading the data? Go to the ProPublica Data Store. ||||| A Closer Look Examining the News 
 
 In 2013, ProPublica released Prescriber Checkup, a database that detailed the prescribing habits of hundreds of thousands of doctors across the country. 
 
 ProPublica reporters used the data — which reflected prescriptions covered by Medicare’s massive drug program, known as part D — to uncover several important findings. The data showed doctors often prescribed narcotic painkillers and antipsychotic drugs in quantities that could be dangerous for their patients, many of whom were elderly. The reporters also found evidence that some doctors wrote far, far more prescriptions than their peers for expensive brand-name drugs for which there were cheaper generic alternatives. And we found instances of probable fraud that had gone undetected by the government. 
 
 The data proved equally useful for others: Doctors themselves turned to Prescriber Checkup to assess how they compared to their peers. Medical plan administrators and hospitals checked it to see whether their doctors were following best practices in treating patients. Law enforcement officials searched the database for leads on fraud and illicit trafficking in pain medications. Patients turned to the data to vet their doctors’ drug choices and compare them with others in their specialties. 
 
 Recently, though, we picked up clear signs that some readers are using the data for another purpose: To search for doctors likely to prescribe them some widely abused drugs, many of them opioids. 
 
 Like nearly everyone on the web, we use Google Analytics to collect data on our site. So far this year, it appears that perhaps as many as 25 percent of Prescriber Checkup’s page views involve narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, and amphetamines. 
 
 Thousands of the people visiting those pages initially viewed the “reporting recipe” we wrote to help local journalists identify doctors who ranked among the top prescribers of narcotics. The readership for this recipe far exceeds any reasonable estimate of local or regional journalists researching stories. According to our web data, many readers also arrived at Prescriber Checkup after web searches like “doctors who prescribe narcotics easily’’ or “doctors that will prescribe anything.’’ 
 
 It’s not possible to draw definitive conclusions about the motives of these people. Some, no doubt, legitimately have chronic pain or anxiety and are simply looking for doctors who will help them. Two of the more frequently searched drugs are Suboxone and methadone, medicines used to treat opioid addiction. (As the depth of the opiod epidemic has become clear, some doctors have become reluctant to prescribe these drugs out of fears that they, too, can be abused.) Still, it seems probable that some of the readers who visit Prescriber Checkup are looking for doctors who will prescribe narcotics and other powerful stimulants with few or no questions asked. 
 
 This is not a new problem for journalists, or others whose business is providing or sharing information. In another era, burglars would read the obituary pages so they could target the homes of people who had just died. More recently, terrorists have used search engines to find recipes for bomb-making or encrypted communications. Con artists have found new ways to perpetrate schemes through Facebook and other social media. 
 
 The Internet’s leading platforms have struggled with this issue. Just this week, Google announced that it would not accept ads for payday lenders. Both Facebook and Google bar advertising for guns, explosives and recreational drugs. 
 
 We impose comparable limits on the advertising we are willing to accept on our site. But as a news organization dedicated to pursuing stories with “moral force,’’ we feel we also have an obligation to look hard at possible misuses of our journalism. 
 
 We have long been advocates for transparency and have repeatedly pushed government agencies to release more data on everything from dialysis clinics to complications in surgical procedures performed under Medicare. In almost every one of these instances, some government officials argued against making the information public, warning that the information would be misused. 
 
 Initially, when we published Prescriber Checkup, we had to request the data under the Freedom of Information Act. The government has come around to see the value of releasing prescribing information. Now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services puts the data freely on its own site. It even has a tool that allows people to compare doctors based on their opioid prescribing, just as our site does. 
 
 Prescriber Checkup The doctors and drugs in Medicare Part D. Explore the data. Using Prescriber Checkup: A Quick Guide We've made it easy to search for doctors and other health providers who are active in Medicare's drug program. See our tips. 
 
 We continue to believe that Prescriber Checkup provides significant and beneficial insights into prescribing patterns — insights that can help patients, practitioners, regulators and a variety of other users. Doctors, the vast majority of whom want to do the right thing, have told us that this is the only place where they can measure their prescribing against colleagues in their specialty and state. And we regularly hear from law enforcement and medical board regulators across the country who say our tool helped them focus their efforts in ways that previously were not available. 
 
 Still, we recognize that it’s important not to ignore the not-so-beneficial uses of Prescriber Checkup. As one way of doing this, we are adding a warning to the pages of all narcotic drugs that reminds readers of the serious health risks posed by taking opioids for pain relief. We will also link to advice on their use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and have written a story on the growing public health crisis arising from the abuse prescription pain medication. We will continue to report on this issue, as we’ve done previously. 
 
 Data journalism gives readers access to a stunning array of information on everything from healthcare to election results. As data sets grow ever larger, they also introduce ethical questions that journalists will be weighing for many years to come. We hope the actions we’ve taken contribute to that conversation
– Looks like a freely available online database that reveals which doctors are prescribing what pills has partly backfired. Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief at ProPublica—which unveiled Prescriber Checkup in 2013—admits as much. "Thousands of the people ... viewed the 'reporting recipe' we wrote to help local journalists identify doctors who ranked among the top prescribers of narcotics," he writes at ProPublica. "The readership for this recipe far exceeds any reasonable estimate of local or regional journalists researching stories." He also concedes that "many readers" are looking up searches like "doctors who prescribe narcotics easily" or "doctors that will prescribe anything." The database has had many positive uses as well, Engelberg says. ProPublica reporters have used it to uncover questionable prescriptions of antipsychotics and painkillers; doctors have used it to compare themselves with peers; law enforcement has used it to investigate illicit pain-medication trafficking and fraud; and patients have used it to wisely compare doctors. But Engelberg is seeing the dark side at a time when the CDC says opioid painkillers are creating an addiction crisis, NBC News reports. ProPublica's solution? For now, it's warning surfers of the database about addiction crisis and linking to CDC advice on using opioids to relieve pain.