RxTrends: An R-based Shiny Application for Visualising Open Data on Prescribed Medications in Ireland

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Pharmaceutical Policy
• Data Visualization

Background:

• The Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland publishes monthly reports on prescription dispensing claims and payments for community drug schemes.
• Analysis of these reports is crucial for understanding medication prescribing trends and informing health policy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of an R-based Shiny application for interactive analysis of HSE prescription data.
• To enhance the practical value of prescription data through improved visualization and trend analysis.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) data from the General Medical Services (GMS) scheme.
• Developed an R-based Shiny application to analyze monthly prescribing and cost data from 2016 to October 2024 for common medications and therapeutic groups.
• Employed various R packages for interactive exploration and comparison of prescribing and cost trends over time.

Main Results:

• The RxTrends Shiny application provides interactive visualizations of dispensing trends for medications, therapeutic groups, and physiological systems.
• Functionalities include comparing prescribing and cost metrics across selected time periods and analyzing the proportion of drug utilization within specific categories.
• Demonstrated use cases related to Ireland's Preferred Drug Initiative, generic product availability, reference pricing, and drug seasonality.

Conclusions:

• The RxTrends application offers an interactive platform for visualizing and monitoring prescribing patterns using PCRS data.
• It significantly improves access to and usability of valuable healthcare data for researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public.