ProPublica's Dollars for Docs is a searchable database compiling payments made to doctors by pharmaceutical companies. Since each company discloses payments individually and does not always release the data in a searchable format, ProPublica's database enables comprehensive searching by doctor name and/or state. The database currently details payments to 17,700 medical providers totaling $281.9 million (2009-2010) from seven pharmaceutical companies:
- Pfizer
- Merck
- AstraZeneca
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Eli Lilly
- Johnson & Johnson
- Cephalon
Search results will detail the payee name and location, the pharmaceutical company that issued the payment, the date of payment, the service rendered (ranging from appearing as a speaker to consulting to travel expenses), and the amount paid.
ProPublica adds increased value to its database with this table of doctors with government actions that reportedly earned income from pharmaceutical companies. The table notes the type of action (i.e. citations or license surrenders) and the total amount paid to these doctors by the pharmaceutical companies. Also available is this list of doctors that have received more than $100,000 from pharmaceutical companies during the reported period. Note that these lists are current as of October and November 2010, respectively.
Three more companies (Allergan, Novartis, and Forest) are projected to release their first datasets within the next several months, and all pharmaceutical companies will be required to disclose the information for a government website by 2013 as a provision of health care reform. We also addressed this topic in April 2010 after Pfizer launched its online database of its payments to doctors. Read here to learn how you can use this data to learn about doctors' potential conflict of interest.