title: Constructing a Real-Time Prescription Drug Monitoring System.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this investigation was to demonstrate the possibility of the construction of a real-time prescription drug monitoring system (PDMOS) using data from the nationwide Drug Utilization Review (DUR) system in Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  The DUR system collects information on drug prescriptions issued by healthcare practitioners and on drugs dispensed by pharmacies. PDMOS was constructed using this data. The screen of PDMOS is designed to exhibit the number of drug prescriptions, the number of prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies, and the dispensed prescription drug costs on a daily and weekly basis. Data was sourced from the DUR system between June 1, 2016 and July 18, 2016. The TOGA solution developed by the EYEQMC Co. Ltd. of Seoul, Korea was used to produce the screen shots.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prescription numbers by medical facilities were more numerous than the number of prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies, as expected. The number of prescriptions per day was between 2 to 3 million. The prescriptions issued by primary care clinics were most numerous, at 75% of the total number of prescriptions. Daily prescription drug costs were found to be approximately US $50 million. The prescription drug costs were highest on Mondays and were reduced towards the end of the week. Prescriptions and dispensed prescriptions numbered approximately 1,200 and 1,000 million, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The construction of a real-time PDMOS has been successful to provide daily and weekly information. There was a lag time of only one day at the national level in terms of information extraction, and scarcely any time was required to load the data. Therefore, this study highlights the potential of constructing a PDMOS to monitor the estimate the number of prescriptions and the resulting expenditures from prescriptions.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Health Insurance Review & Assessment, Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Taek
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Health Insurance Review & Assessment, Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Youn Tae
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Emmanuel C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Jo
keywords: Drug Costs; Drug Monitoring; Drug Utilization; Drug Utilization Review; Prescription Drugs