In m former life I was involved with what are known as geographic information systems which are essentially coloring maps to reflect datasets. On steroids.
Because of the spread of the 9/11 emergency response stuff, there are hundreds of training programs for this at the community college level. It should be possible to find a class to take it on as a project and it shouldn't take them over six weeks. The hard part is getting the datasets.
Every big pharmacy chain has them. They have to track that info very closely so that they don't end up with a closet full of requip at their Peoria store. Mailorder can be ignored since it would apply equally across the uS. It would be a little tricky to account for population movements, but that's what the students would do.
-Rick
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Originally Posted by indigogo
I also think a registry is important. It's a bit tricky, especially because the kind of registry that really makes a difference is mandatory - that brings up all sorts of privacy issues. But if they've done it for other diseases, I don't know why they can't do it for PD.
Regarding Pharmacies - I just checked with Bill Bell, and he said he had pursued the idea through to an organization called the National Drug Code (NDC http://www.fda.gov/cder/ndc/ ), that tracks all perscriptions in the US. There would have to be some statistical work done around mailorder stuff, etc. to arrive at an estimate.
Apparently it is something that can be done - it's just terribly expensive (on Bill's budget, anyway), at least on the order of a million dollars - a drop in the bucket for the feds! |