Prescription data

I am puzzled by the debate in eCMAJ over the article by Dick Zoutman and colleagues.¹ Surely the moral of their paper is simply that there has to be a better way for researchers and governments to access prescribing data than from a proprietary supplier. In an era in which we have simultaneously come to appreciate that robust data are required to maintain a successful health system and that protection of individual confidentiality is paramount, it would seem that public policy on prescription information demands attention. If a national pharmacare program is ever to emerge and survive in Canada, it will require access to precisely this sort of data. Evidence-based policy requires evidence of undisputed probity. Zoutman and colleagues are to be commended for making this need so transparent.

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Samuel E.D. Shortt
Director Queen's Health Policy Research Unit Queen's University Kingston, Ont.