>> I've spoken to the press office at the DoH who tell me that the article is
>> rubbish. No restriction on independent research is intended but some
>> datasets might be put beyond public use. The example given is GP
>prescribing
>> info which could be used to target GPs by pharmaceutical co.s (recently
>> tested in Sourceinformatics case). Anyone using such data will be fined.
This seems very odd as a DoH line. The Medicines Control Agency - for
whom I work and part of the DoH - have recently taken over maintenance
of the GPRD, the largest GP prescribing database in this country. They
are busy trying to market it to a wide customer base. Is this consistent
with putting it beyond public use?
It might be informative to try using GPRD as a specific example when
asking the DoH about this.
--
JIM SLATTERY
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