Planning to Evaluate a PDMP Program? What Are Some Challenges?

Privacy concerns may hinder evaluation of PDMPs.

Before beginning an evaluation of a PDMP, evaluators must determine how best to address confidentiality issues. This is usually accomplished by drafting agreements that ensure adequate privacy safeguards.

Variations in PDMPs among states may cause challenges with cross-state comparisons.

States differ in how they use prescription data to detect potential diversion activity. Consequently, cross-state comparisons regarding the amount of abuse are difficult to make. Further variation regarding the data collected, for example, classes of prescription drugs for which they collect data, may serve to further complicate the comparison of PDMP data.

Poorly designed PDMP databases may increase the likelihood that legitimate cases of prescription drug use are included in the data analyses.

In some instances, practitioners may prescribe high dosage prescription drugs to patients for the treatment of chronic pain and terminal illnesses. Although legitimate, these data may be included in analyses along with cases involving actual misuse. To ensure that only actual cases of misuse are included in analyses, evaluators must be well acquainted with PDMP design and accompanying terminology. This will help evaluators more effectively identify instances in which cases may have been inappropriately classified as abusive.

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