Method, system, and computer program product for determining a narcotics use indicator

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product determines a controlled substance use indicator to enable a physician, or other prescriber, to quickly review a numerical score that reflects a patient's past drug use and is indicative of proper, or improper, future drug use. This score analyzes many aspects of a patient's past activities to determine multiple individual indicator values that may be selectively weighted to create a final controlled substance use indicator. Such individual indicator values may include: a usage related indicator factoring in the patient's past drug use, particularly the type of controlled substances used; an instruction related indicator that may consider the patient's past use of prescribers, quantity of prescriptions, or the number of open prescriptions from different prescribers; a dispensing related indicator that examines a patient's use of pharmacies in filling prescriptions; or even an auxiliary indicator that may reflect the patient's number of active prescriptions.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for determining the likelihood of proper prescription drug use by a patient, the method comprising:
 obtaining a record from a prescription database, the record indicative of a plurality of prescriptions corresponding to the patient;   generating, with one or more computer processors, a usage related indicator by comparing at least one of a prescription drug type corresponding to two or more of the plurality of prescriptions or a prescription drug quantity corresponding to the two or more of the plurality of prescriptions with a plurality of general population prescription drug use data;   generating, with the one or more computer processors, an instruction related indicator by comparing a prescriber corresponding to at least one of the plurality of prescriptions to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data;   combining, with the one or more computer processors, the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, including applying at least one numerical adjustment factor to one or both of the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, to produce a prescription drug use indicator; and   displaying the prescription drug use indicator on a visual medium.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the drug use indicator is at least a two digit number. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the drug use indicator is at least a three digit number, wherein a last digit is an active prescription indicator and represents a number of active prescriptions. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the plurality of prescriptions includes at least one prescription for a narcotic;   wherein, for the at least one prescription for a narcotic, the prescription drug type is a narcotic type and the prescription drug quantity is a narcotic quantity; and   wherein generating the usage related indicator includes the creation of a morphine equivalents unit indicator by transforming the narcotic type, a narcotic strength, and the narcotic quantity into a morphine equivalents unit quantity, and comparing the morphine equivalents unit quantity with the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a morphine equivalents unit percentile for a given morphine equivalents unit period.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein, in combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, one adjustment factor that is applied is a narcotic usage weighting factor. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the morphine equivalents unit percentile is determined for at least two morphine equivalents unit periods and the narcotic usage weighting factor is applied to a multi period morphine equivalents unit percentile that is the average of the morphine equivalents unit percentiles. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the plurality of prescriptions includes at least one prescription for a controlled substance;   wherein, for the at least one prescription for a controlled substance, the prescription drug type is a controlled substance type and the prescription drug quantity is a controlled substance quantity; and   wherein generating the usage related indicator includes the creation of a controlled substance unit indicator by comparing the controlled substance quantity with the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a controlled substance unit percentile for a given controlled substance unit period.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein, in combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, one adjustment factor that is applied is a controlled substance usage weighting factor. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the controlled substance unit percentile is determined for at least two controlled substance unit periods and the controlled substance usage weighting factor is applied to a multi period controlled substance unit percentile that is the average of the controlled substance unit percentiles. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the record contains a prescription period, and wherein generating the instruction related indicator includes identifying a potential prescription overlap situation when the record includes at least two prescribers during a prescription overlap period, and creating of a prescription overlap indicator by determining a prescription overlap quantity that is the total number of days that the prescription period of the each prescriber coincide and comparing the prescription overlap quantity with the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a prescription overlap percentile. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein, in combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, one adjustment factor that is applied is an overlap weighting factor. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the prescription overlap percentile is determined for at least two prescription overlap periods and the overlap weighting factor is applied to a multi period prescription overlap percentile that is the average of the prescription overlap percentiles. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the instruction related indicator includes the creation of a prescriber indicator that indicates a ranking of a prescriber quantity, which is a number of prescribers identified in the record for the patient for a given time period, compared to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a prescriber percentile. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein, in combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, one adjustment factor that is applied is a prescriber weighting factor. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the prescriber percentile is determined for at least two prescriber periods and the prescriber weighting factor is applied to a multiperiod prescriber percentile that is the average of the prescriber percentiles. 
     
     
         16 . A computer-implemented method for determining the likelihood of proper prescription drug use by a patient, the method comprising:
 obtaining a record from a prescription database, the record indicative of a plurality of prescriptions corresponding to the patient, and each of the plurality of prescriptions including an identification of a distributor;   generating, with one or more computer processors, a usage related indicator by comparing at least one of a prescription drug type corresponding to two or more of the plurality of prescriptions or a prescription drug quantity corresponding to the two or more of the plurality of prescriptions with a plurality of general population prescription drug use data;   generating, with the one or more computer processors, an instruction related indicator by comparing a prescriber corresponding to at least one of the plurality of prescriptions to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data;   generating, with the one or more computer processors, a dispensing related indicator that indicates a ranking of the distributor for each prescription compared to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data,   combining, with the one or more computer processors, the usage related indicator, the instruction related indicator, and the dispensing related indicator, including applying at least one numerical adjustment factor to at least one of the usage related indicator, the instruction related indicator, and the dispensing related indicator, to produce a prescription drug use indicator; and   displaying the prescription drug use indicator on a visual medium.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the narcotics use indicator is at least a two digit number. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the narcotics use indicator is at least a three digit number, wherein a last digit is an active prescription indicator and represents a number of active prescriptions. 
     
     
         19 . A computer-implemented method for determining the likelihood of proper prescription drug use by a patient, the method comprising:
 obtaining a record from a prescription database on a server, the record indicative of a plurality of prescriptions corresponding to the patient;   generating, with one or more computer processors, a morphine equivalents unit percentile for a given morphine equivalents unit period by comparing at least one of a narcotic type of two or more of the plurality of prescriptions or a narcotic quantity of two or more of the plurality of prescriptions with a plurality of general population prescription drug use data;   generating, with the one or more computer processors, an instruction related indicator including:
 a) identifying a potential prescription overlap situation of at least two prescribers during a prescription overlap period to produce a prescription overlap percentile; and 
 b) creating of a prescriber indicator by comparing a prescriber quantity, which is a number of prescribers in the record of the patient, with the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a prescriber percentile for a given prescriber period; 
   combining, with the one or more computer processors, the prescription overlap percentile, the prescriber percentile, and the morphine equivalents unit percentile to produce a narcotics use indicator; and   displaying the narcotics use indicator on a visual medium.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the narcotics use indicator is at least a two digit number. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the narcotics use indicator is at least a three digit number, wherein a last digit is an active prescription indicator and represents a number of active prescriptions.