case study
What is a doctor-shopping phenomenon?
You may wonder what doctor-shopping is. In a series of publications, I attempted to explain the phenomenon of doctor-shopping and describe its characteristics.
Purpose
Doctor-shopping has significant consequences for patients and payers, indicating misuse of drugs, polypharmacy, reduced continuity of care, and increased medical expenses. To shed light on this issue, I aimed to review literature describing doctor-shoppers in both adult and pediatric populations. My goal was to identify factors associated with doctor-shopping behavior and investigate the doctor-related factors that might contribute to this phenomenon.
Approach
Several search strategies were tested to refine the final searches, facilitating the analysis of the doctor-shopping phenomenon. A publication plan was developed to target the health policy audience, and comprehensive full-length papers and posters were planned to disseminate the real-world data findings.
Results
Two papers were successfully published in peer-reviewed journals, and three posters were accepted for presentation at the ISPOR conference. The research has been well-received by the scientific community; to date, it has been cited over 60 times by other researchers.
Publications
Biernikiewicz M, Taieb V, Toumi M. Characteristics of doctor-shoppers: a systematic literature review. J Mark Access Health Policy. 2019;7(1):1595953; doi: 10.1080/20016689.2019.1595953.
Biernikiewicz M, Germain N, Toumi M. Second opinions, multiple physician appointments, and overlapping prescriptions in the paediatric population: A systematic literature review. J Eval Clin Pract. 2020;26:1761–176; doi: 10.1111/jep.13365.
Biernikiewicz M, Taieb V, Toumi M. Characteristics of doctor-shoppers- a systematic literature review. PHP2,2018-11, ISPOR Europe 2018, Barcelona, Spain; PHP2.
Jaafer N, Biernikiewicz M, Toumi M. Physician-related factors in doctor-shopping- a systematic literature review. PHP334,2018-11, ISPOR Europe 2018, Barcelona, Spain; PHP334.
Biernikiewicz M, Germain N, Toumi M. Demand for second opinions in the paediatric population- a systematic review of the literature. PHP158,2018-11, ISPOR Europe 2018, Barcelona, Spain; PHP158.