1.7 Summary Figures in Studies of Medical Product Utilization

Three measures of medical product utilization can be visualized in figures using the QRP Reporting Tool: 1) number of patients entering the study, 2) number of dispensings in patients’ first treatment episodes, and 3) days supply in patients’ first treatment episodes.

1.7.1 Output

Users can request that the QRP Reporting Tool output figures describing certain medical product utilization measures for cohorts of interest by specifying the appropriate figure ID in the QRP Report Figure File. These figures provide a visualization of accumulation during each month of study and cumulatively as the study progressed. Each figure (described in Table 1.12 below) is output in its own tab of the Excel version of the report.

The x-axis of all summary figures output in the report is “Months since Study Start,” which is shown as integers starting at 0 and ending either at the maximum episode length or the user-specified maximum value.

There is both a primary (left) and secondary (right) y-axis, which measure the relevant counting variable for the monthly and cumulative counts respectively. Monthly counts are plotted as a bar chart on the primary y-axis (stacked bar chart if output is stratified), whereas cumulative counts are plotted as a line chart on the secondary y-axis, with data markers for each month on the x-axis.

Table 1.12: Requestable Figures in Studies of Medical Product Utilization
Figure Number Figure Title, followed by “for [Group Label]7 in the [Database Name]8 from [Query Start]9 to [Query End]10” X-axis label Primary Y-axis label Secondary Y-axis label
1 Patient Entry into Study by Month Months since Study Start Monthly Number of Patients Cumulative Number of Patients in Study
2 Number of Prescription Dispensings in Patients’ First Episodes by Month Patient Entered into Study Months since Study Start Monthly Number of Prescription Dispensings Cumulative Number of Prescription Dispensings
3 Total Days Supply in Patients’ First Episodes by Month Patient Entered into Study Months since Study Start Monthly Total Days Supply Cumulative Days Supply

1.7.2 User Options

Users can customize the x- and primary y-axis using relevant parameters in the QRP Report Figure File as described in the summary figures section of this documentation.

  1. [Group Label] is user-specified in the QRP Report Label File↩︎

  2. [Database Name] is user-specified in the QRP Report DP Info File↩︎

  3. [Query Start] is user-specified in qrp.MonitoringFile↩︎

  4. [Query End] is the maximum date of all the included data partner end dates (unless an explicit follow-up end date is specified in qrp.MonitoringFile and is earlier than the maximum data partner end date, in which case the end date is the follow-up end date).↩︎