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Open Payments search tool released
CMS announced it has added a simple search tool to its Open Payments website, which now includes more detailed information.
Users can search the database in three ways using the tool. A user can click on a tab to search by company name, allowing users to see all payments for research, general reasons and to teaching hospitals that the company has made.
“With the addition of this new search tool, we are also providing more detailed information on the data released, including updating the data about the company that made the payment, giving researchers and consumers more granular information,” Shantanu Agrawal, MD, CMS deputy administrator and director of center for program integrity, wrote in the CMS blog.
A search by physician can be performed by entering name, address or specialty. Typing in part of a name, such as “John” in the last name field, will return broad results, including both the names “John” and “Johnson,” for example. A separate field is available to search through teaching hospitals by name and address fields.
According to a press release, CMS will add additional features that will include more detailed information, summary data, charts and graphs. CMS is asking for feedback via email to suggest site improvements.
Linda J. Burns
The data, which spans 6 months’ time during 2013, was released publically on Sept. 30, and concern was expressed by some medical societies that the data was provided without context. At that time, Linda J. Burns, MD, president of the American Society of Hematology, issued a statement expressing similar concerns.
“The release of these incomplete data without appropriate disclosures and/or explanatory statements as to their limitations and potential misinterpretations may result in inaccurate and misleading information about physicians and teaching hospitals,” Burns wrote. “While transparency about industry-physician relationships is critically important, industry support of medicine should not be cast in a negative light. Research and development sponsored by the biomedical/pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in biomedical research and has paved the way for significant scientific discoveries that have benefited millions of patients.”