System and method for early identification of safety concerns of new drugs

Abstract

A drug registry database is administered by storing healthcare claims for a plurality of patients and providing a user interface that displays new drug/comparator drug pairings in which a new drug includes a threshold number of healthcare claims and a comparator drug with substantially similar medical indications as the new drug. Based on receiving a new drug/comparator drug pairing selection, an analysis engine identifies from healthcare claims a statistically matched first of patients having used the new drug and second group of patients having used the comparator drug; identifies a comparative occurrence of existing medical conditions or new medical conditions in the statistically matched groups; and calculates a probability value indicating a relative likelihood that a patient taking the new drug will have a medical condition from the new or existing medical conditions in comparison to a likelihood that a patient taking the comparator drug will have the medical condition.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented system for administering a drug registry database, comprising:
 an electronic database for storing a plurality of healthcare claims for a plurality of patients;   a user interface for
 displaying a plurality of new drug/comparator drug pairings, wherein each new drug is added to the database when a threshold number of healthcare claims for the new drug have been received and wherein each comparator drug paired with a new drug that has substantially similar medical indications as the new drug; and 
 receiving a selection of a new drug/comparator drug pairing, and filter parameters input by a user; and 
   an analysis engine for
 searching the healthcare claims stored in the database to identify a first and second group of patients satisfying the filter parameters input by the user; wherein the first group includes patients with claim data indicating use of the new drug and the second group includes patients with claim data indicating use of the comparator drug; 
 identifying a comparative occurrence of one or more existing medical conditions or new medical conditions in the first and second groups of patients; and 
 calculating a probability value indicating a relative likelihood that a patient taking the new drug will have each of the one or more new or existing medical conditions in comparison to a likelihood that a patient taking the comparator drug will have each of the one or more new or existing medical conditions; 
   wherein the user interface displays each new or existing medical condition and the probability value for the new drug and the comparator drug in accordance with one or more report parameters entered by the user.   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the display generated by the user interface includes demographic characteristics, prevalence of diagnosis, prevalence of procedures, prevalence of drug class, or healthcare utilization. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the filter parameters include one or more diagnosis codes, procedure codes, drug categories, or demographic characteristics. 
     
     
         4 . A computer-implemented method for administering a drug registry database, comprising:
 storing a plurality of healthcare claims for a plurality of patients;   displaying a plurality of new drug/comparator drug pairings, wherein each new drug is added to the database when a threshold number of healthcare claims for the new drug have been received and wherein each comparator drug paired with a new drug that has substantially similar medical indications as the new drug;   receiving a selection of a new drug/comparator drug pairing, and filter parameters input by a user;   searching the healthcare claims stored in the database to identify a first and second group of patients satisfying the filter parameters input by the user; wherein the first group includes patients with claim data indicating use of the new drug and the second group includes patients with claim data indicating use of the comparator drug;   identifying a comparative occurrence of one or more existing medical conditions or new medical conditions in the first and second groups of patients;   calculating a probability value indicating a relative likelihood that a patient taking the new drug will have each of the one or more new or existing medical conditions in comparison to a likelihood that a patient taking the comparator drug will have each of the one or more new or existing medical conditions; and   displaying each new or existing medical condition and the probability value for the new drug and the comparator drug in accordance with one or more report parameters entered by the user.   
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the display generated by the user interface includes demographic characteristics, prevalence of diagnosis, prevalence of procedures, prevalence of drug class, or healthcare utilization. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the filter parameters include one or more diagnosis codes, procedure codes, drug categories, or demographic characteristics.