Table 1.

Heat map of measures of accessibility and quality of payment databases

Measures of payment data accessibility
		Higher accessibility		Lower accessibility
Database format	How is the database published (ie, PDF, XLS, CSV, webpage)?	Webpage, XLS or CSV	Readable PDFs	Image-based PDFs
Database structure	Does the data from all companies follow a single template consistently?	Yes	N/A	No
Database searchability	Can the database be searched? If so, can database searches be carried out without data users providing any additional information?	Yes	Database searchable but additional information needed for searches	No
Customisable summary statistics	Does the database offer users the possibility of generating real-time, dynamic data summaries based on selected database characteristics?	Yes	N/A	No
Downloadability	Can the database be downloaded (eg, as a single CSV or XLS file) for further analysis?	Yes	N/A	No
Measures of payment data quality
		Higher quality		Lower quality
Spectrum of disclosed characteristics	What characteristics are included in relation to donors, recipients and payments?	All characteristics from the EFPIA disclosure template covered as well as some additional ones	All characteristics from the EFPIA disclosure template covered	At least some characteristics from the EFPIA disclosure template not covered, including instances where some additional characteristics are provided
Aggregation of payments	Are payments itemised (ie, all payments have separate entries) or are they aggregated on an annual basis (eg, per recipient and/or payment category)?	All payments itemised	Some payments itemised, others aggregated	All payments aggregated
Inclusion of taxes	Is it clear whether payments are reported inclusive or exclusive of any taxes, such as VAT?	Single rule for all companies and payments	No single rule, each company sets its own rules for VAT reporting which are published separately from payment disclosures*	Rules around tax reporting are unclear
Unique identifiers	Do reported donors (drug companies) or recipients (healthcare professionals or organisations) have unique identifiers?	All donors and recipients	Some donors or recipients	No unique identifiers

*The EFPIA Code stipulates that companies must publish documents, called ‘methodological notes’, which should explain their approach to reporting VAT and other taxes. Companies publish these documents separately from payment disclosures but consulting them is necessary to understand, compare and aggregate payment values.

CSV, comma-separated values files; EFPIA, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations; PDF, portable document format; VAT, Value-Added Tax; XLS, spreadsheet file format used in Microsoft Excel.