It is a tool to help you explore the prescriber universe in your region – specifically focused on the topic of "Prescriber Networks" or "Communities of Practice".
Extensive data analysis of patient referral patterns and prescription patterns is the basis for determining these "Communities of Practice":
who is connected to whom (using patient referrals as a proxy for HCP-to-HCP relationships), who prescribes which products, who sees the most patients, etc.
This tool aims to help you find HCPs of interest by leveraging the Network Information as well as a bunch of other HCP level attributes that have been determined using available 3rd party data.
The central concepts of this approach are "Communities"(the referral networks of HCPs) and "HUBs" (the central HCP receiving the referrals).
A community of health care providers is a group that is defined by referral relationships. Those within a community have a stronger relationship to each other than they do to HCPs outside of the community.
Communities are classified based on the number of HUBs and physicians contained in them.
HUBs are HCPs who have the most referral relationships with other HCPs. They are central to a community of practice and presumably have a disproportional influence with other HCPs.
We define HUBs by the number of referring physicians but can further restrict who is a HUB by their specialty and the number of patients they treat and/or the number of patients referred to them.
The # of referring HCPs, # of patients seen, and # of patients referred in to an HCP changes when the timeframe is changed – the model only counts referrals and patients during the selected timeframe.
To keep a somewhat consistent definition without resetting the absolute numbers each time you change timeframes, the input defining HUBs is based on a percentage: You select what percent (%) of HCPs you want to consider HUBs by entering a number% in the filter – the top X% of HCPs ranked by number# of "referring HCPs in" will be defined as a HUB in that instance.
At the most basic, you use this tool to query a very large database of HCP-level information. The user interface is set up for you to select from a menu of criteria to select specific HCPs from the total data set based on which filters you apply.
You can either
(i) use standard saved searches that others created, or
(ii) select from custom searches you previously created and saved.
You can also change existing searches and save them under a new name for future reference.
Creating/Starting a Search: Once you select a search type, you will be taken to the Search page where you will select a specific Search by name. Then, you will land on the Filters page, where you can review or change filters for the search you want to initiate.
It is good practice to select your Territory and the Time Window on the upper right of the screen to limit the number of HCPs that will be searched.
If you change any filters, such as any of the choices under "Physicians Filter", we recommend you name & save this as a new search to save your new choices. Then click "Do Search".
Once you have done a search, you will be taken to the Results page, which shows a few statistics about the group of HCPs that you’ve selected as well as a list of HCPs that meet your search criteria. You can then select additional information under "Detail Level" to determine what types of information (columns) will be displayed in the table on the screen. The default is to show "Basic HCP Info Only".
If this list is still too long or too complex, you can further sort or filter on each column in the table on the screen.
The list you created can be downloaded to a CSV file (which can be saved as an excel file).
To take a closer look at the HUBs in your results and understand the referral communities:
If needed, go back to edit your search and run it again.
Once you land on the Filters page, you will see 4 groups of filters. You don’t need to use all of them – just the ones of interest to you.
Reminder: Select your Territory and Time Window in the upper right.
Each of the 4 groups shows the most frequently used filters but clicking the "down-arrows" can reveal additional filters that are hidden. 1. Physicians Filter: select from a number of attributes that have been defined for each individual physician. These are related to - Physician status as a HUB, TLL Target, CAS Target, Academic/Clinical focus as well as selected prescribing behaviors - Patient and patient referral criteria - Geographic location ... or a search by name 2. Communities Filter: You can limit your search to look only for HCPs in specific types of communities – defined by single vs. multiple HUB communities or by community size (defining a minimum # of patients or # of physicians) 3. HUB Physicians Definition: Here is where you can determine who is considered a HUB – this does not filter the list of HCPs you generate with your search but determines who is / is not considered a HUB. See below for more info on defining a HUB. 4. Referral Filters: This filter applies ONLY to (i) the list of referring HCPs (when you select a primary HCP from the results page to generate a secondary table with referring HCPs) and (ii) the Map that shows on the Results page. Both the table and the map will only display referrers / referrals that meet the minimum # of patients, or the referral distance criteria selected.
2nd Reminder: Select your Territory and Time Window in the upper right.
Once you have set your search criteria, we recommend naming and saving it – this goes for a brand-new search or a revision of a prior search – before you click Do Search. If you click Do Search without explicitly saving it first, the last search will be overwritten with the current search criteria.
Please see What is a HUB?
The "Top Referred to HCPs" means the top X% selected that have referred to that HCP. You select what percent (%) of HCPs you will consider a HUBs by entering a number in the filter and the top X% of HCPs ranked by number of "referring HCPs in" will be defined as a HUB in that instance.
You can also select another Speciality and further define the number of patients (HUB Definition Patients Threshold) to customize your HUB physician definition.
This filter applies ONLY to (i) the list of referring HCPs (when you select a primary HCP from the results page to generate a secondary table with referring HCPs) and (ii) the Map that shows on the Results page. Both the table and the map will only display referrers / referrals that meet the minimum # of patients, or the referral distance criteria selected.
There are many, many data points for each physician – this information comes from analyzing 3rd party data and from CYTK internal information about each HCP.
The HCP information is broken out into 4 groups (click on the selection to define how much data is displayed and would be downloaded if you selected download). Basic HCP Info is included in all selections but if you wish to see more than one category (such as Referrals AND Rx Detail), you will need to select "All".
Selected HCP attributes (variables) definitions:
Overall the HUB Detail Report has a similar structure as the HCP Summary Report, but it includes the referring HCPs for each selected HUB.
The HUB will be identified by name, but no other info is displayed in this table as their information is already captured in the Summary Report. The referring HCPs will have similar information in this report as the HUBs have in the prior report.
The Basic HCP info variables and the Rx Detail variables are defined in the same manner as in the HCP Summary Report.