Computer could detect drug frauds, says consultant

Press, 26 September 1989, Page 13

Computer could detect drug frauds, says consultant

By

GARRY ARTHUR

A CHRISTCHURCH computer expert has suggested a solution to the problem faced by general practitioners, of detecting drug abusers who use false names and addresses when seeking prescription drugs. The matter was raised by Dr Edwin Whiteside, of the Health Department’s mental health section in a “Press” article on this page about drug abuse on September 9. He said that medical officers of health could put restriction orders on particular patients, but that these were hard to enforce because of the use of aliases.

Tony Harvey, formerly a consultant implementing computer systems for the Health Department, says general practitioners could use their personal computers to search the Paxus Health System for patients’ names. The system already contains many aliases used by malingerers and addicts trying to work the system. Since these people tend to use the same aliases or similar ones over and over again, many of them would be detected.

“The facility is there,” says Mr Harvey, “but we’re not using it. It is under-utilised. Doctors could be given a user identification and a password so that they could search for a patient’s name and get the ‘patient memo’ which tells what drugs are being used, etc.- They could also enter data about their patients.” Keith Young of Paxus Health (the Health Department computer arm which was bought by Paxus 12 months ago) says the computer’s master patient index has information about more than 2 million people who have had contact with public hospitals — including any aliases they have used.

“It’s capable of being linked through personal computers,” he says, “but the current legislation says the equipment must be owned or controlled by the Director-General of Health or area health boards, so G.P.s’ access is precluded. “That is not to say that the legislation could not be changed, given the will to do so. There is information there that would be valuable to G.P.S. As well as patients’ aliases, it has information on adverse reactions to drugs.” , Mr Young says the computer identifies the users of aliases through the Soundex system — based on a mathematical for-

mula which equates names of similar sound and construction.

“People using aliases tend to change their Christian names, or use elements of their own surnames,” he says. “The outstanding case is an addict who had more than 90 different aliases. It doesn’t matter, because there tends to be a lot of commonality. People use base names, and different sequences of Christian names. They tend to stick to patterns.”

But he concedes that someone choosing a completely new name as an alias could not be detected by the computer. The health computer is linked to 60 hospitals which all contribute to the main index. If general practitioners also contributed, there would be a much greater network and the chances of picking up frauds would be much greater. Mr Young says Paxus could provide the service but has not canvassed the possibility because its priorities have been with the public health sector. If it was done, the cost would be shared between the Government and general practitioners. Mr lan Miller, the Health Department’s general manager in charge, of support services, says the proposal is worth further consideration. “It’s a proposition that we could look at.” Technically, it is feasible for general practitioners to access the computer index as a means of screening patients seeking drugs, but Mr Miller feels that further information would need to be added to the system. If the computer is asked whether a particular name is known to be that of a fraudulent obtainer of drugs, it is vital to know that its answer refers to the same person.

“The computer index is designed for reasonable people who use the health system,” says Mr Miller. “It’s not like the criminal justice system computer — it’s not designed to catch frauds. But if a person is a known mis-user of drugs, that can be monitored.”

Mr Miller says it would be a huge step up in the scale of the system’s base, jumping from the present hundreds of users to thousands. Pharmacists would probably have to be given access as well as G.P.s.

“It would have to be subjected to a cost-benefit analysis,” he says. “It could well be that it’s easier to put posters up."