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

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for determining 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 a plurality of general population prescription drug instruction data; and   combining, with the one or more computer processors, the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator to produce a prescription drug use indicator for display on a visual medium.   
     
     
         2 . 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 further 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.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator includes applying a usage weighting factor that is a narcotic usage weighting factor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , 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. 
     
     
         5 . 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 further 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.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator includes applying a usage weighting factor that is a controlled substance usage weighting factor. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , 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. 
     
     
         8 . 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. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator includes applying an instruction weighting factor that is an overlap weighting factor. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , 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. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the instruction related indicator includes the creation of a prescriber indicator that indicating a ranking of a prescriber quantity compared to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a prescriber percentile for a given prescriber period. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator includes applying an instruction weighting factor that is a prescriber weighting factor. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , 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. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of prescriptions includes a distributor; the method further comprising:
 generating a dispensing related indicator that indicates a ranking of the distributor compared to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data, and wherein a weighting factor is applied to at least one of the usage related indicator, the instruction related indicator, and the dispensing related indicator.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein generating the dispensing related indicator further includes the creation of a distribution source indicator that indicates a ranking of a distribution source quantity compared to the plurality of general population prescription drug use data to determine a distribution source percentile for a given distribution source period. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator includes applying a dispensing weighting factor. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the distribution source percentile is determined for at least two distribution source periods and the dispensing weighting factor is applied to a multi period distribution source percentile that is the average of the distribution source percentiles. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of prescriptions includes a prescription drug type. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the usage related quantity is based on at least the prescription drug type corresponding to two or more of the plurality of prescriptions, the prescription drug strength corresponding to two or more of the plurality of prescriptions, and the prescription drug quantity corresponding to the two or more of the plurality of prescriptions. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein combining the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator to determine the prescription drug use indicator includes numerically weighting at least one of the usage related indicator or the instruction related indicator. 
     
     
         21 . 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 give 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 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 for display on a visual medium.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the narcotics use indicator is at least a two digit number. 
     
     
         23 . 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. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein
 (A) 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,   (B) the prescriber percentile is determined for at least two prescriber periods and the prescriber weighting factor is applied to a multi period prescriber percentile that is the average of the prescriber percentiles, and   (C) 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.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the narcotic usage weighting factor is at least twice the overlap weighting factor, and the narcotic usage weighting factor is at least twice the prescriber weighting factor. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein at least one of the overlap weighting factor, the prescriber weighting factor, or the narcotic usage weighting factor is automatically increased when a preset criteria for at least one of the usage related indicator and the instruction related indicator, is retrieved from the database.