Development and Use of Reprints Tracking Reporter (RTR) as a Medical Information Web-Based Tool for Compliance with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.

Dissemination of full-article references in connection with medical information responses from pharmaceutical industry medical information departments (PIMID) has both copyright and Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA) compliance requirements. A complex of data must be aggregated from multiple databases, which presents a challenge in efficiently distributing articles and reporting the metrics. Using contemporary programming methods that any PIMID can duplicate and that is described herein, the authors developed a web-based tool (Reprints Tracking Reporter [RTR]) to meet this need. Information is compiled from an inquiry management database (IRMS) and library bibliographic database (Quosa) and matched to the physician National Provider Identifier number per the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System database. RTR identified 2179 unique references from all of the response letters and then matched their copyright status. Several report formats allow for tracking distribution by article, customer, or state and generating Item/Transfer of Value aggregate spend reports on a periodic basis. A notable trend has been decreased article requests from physicians after informing them of the PPSA reporting requirement.