ClinCalc Academy is excited to announce the launch of our newest online, video-based course — Biostatistics Rx. This course is designed specifically for busy healthcare professionals who want to transform their understanding of biostatistics and literature evaluation.
ClinCalc has released the latest edition of the DrugStats database, featuring “The Top 200 Drugs of 2021”. DrugStats offers complementary access to estimated prescription drug utilization data for the United States. With this data set, users can discern patterns in prescribing habits and access an evidence-based, reputable “top 200 drugs” (or “top 300 drugs”) list based on data provided by the U.S. Government.
All medication utilization data comes from the annual Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) via the United States government. This data is publicly available on the MEPS website for free. In order for the ClinCalc DrugStats database to implement the MEPS data, basic data sanitization and standardization measures are necessary to maintain an accurate and reliable data set. Read more about the data set by clicking here. Continue reading
ClinCalc has released this year’s update to the DrugStats database — “The Top 200 Drugs of 2019”. DrugStats provides free access to prescription drug utilization data estimates for the United States. Using this data set, users can identify trends in prescribing practice and an official, reputable “top 200 drugs” list based on data provided by the U.S. Government.
All medication utilization data comes from the annual Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) via the United States government. This data is publicly available on the MEPS website for free. In order for the ClinCalc DrugStats database to implement the MEPS data, basic data sanitization and standardization measures are necessary to maintain an accurate and reliable data set. Read more about the data set by clicking here. Continue reading
ClinCalc is excited to announce a new iOS and Android app — RapidASCVD, a new mobile app to calculate ASCVD scores seriously fast.
ClinCalc is proud to announce a new iOS app — RxHero, an educational game for healthcare students and professional to learn the Top 250 Drugs.
By default, Microsoft Word and other Office products do not contain brand and generic medication names within the spelling dictionary. For healthcare providers who conduct medical writing, publications, or PowerPoint lectures, this can lead to embarrassing spelling errors that are not captured by the spell check.
We’re proud to announce the annual update of the DrugStats database. DrugStats provides free access to prescription drug utilization data estimates for the United States. Using this data set, users can identify trends in prescribing practice and an official, reputable “top 200 drugs” list based on data provided by the U.S. Government.
All medication utilization data comes from the annual Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) via the United States government. This data is publicly available on the MEPS website for free. In order for the ClinCalc DrugStats database to implement the MEPS data, basic data sanitization and standardization measures are necessary to maintain an accurate and reliable data set. Read more about the data set by clicking here.
Continue reading
We’re excited to announce the launch of our newest product at ClinCalc.com — the DrugStats Database! This database provides free, web-based access to outpatient prescription utilization statistics for the United States encompassing more than 3 billion prescriptions annually.
By leveraging the database, users can identify trends and compare usage of approximately 500 different outpatient medications. A few examples include: Continue reading
In the United States, there are currently four direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). All four DOACs are approved for the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), among other indications.1-4 Despite differences in pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and clinical trial efficacy and safety data, current guidelines do not prefer a specific DOAC. Given the lack of guideline-based recommendations for a particular DOAC, clinicians are frequently left without clear guidance of the most appropriate DOAC for a particular patient beyond the preferences of an insurance company or the availability of manufacturers’ coupons. After a careful analysis of the existing data, a very strong case can be made to make apixaban (Eliquis) the preferred DOAC for both VTE and NVAF.
For the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), the CHEST 2016 guidelines recommend any of the four DOACs over warfarin therapy for long-term anticoagulation therapy in patients without cancer (grade 2B).5 The guidelines do not specifically endorse any DOAC, although a table is provided that outlines factors that may influence the selection of a “preferred” anticoagulant. For example, patients wanting to avoid parenteral therapy may prefer rivaroxaban or apixaban because dabigatran and edoxaban require five to ten days of parenteral therapy prior to initiation.
When evaluating a clinical trial, readers often jump to the P value of the primary endpoint to determine whether the results of a trial are “statistically significant” or not. Although the P value is truly a continuous variable, the scientific community has been conditioned to disregard all results with P values ≥ 0.05, but to fully endorse any trials with a “statistically significant” P value less than 0.05.
Putting the debate and controversy about P values aside for the moment, as a reader, would you be less impressed with a study that changed from being statistically significant to insignificant if one single patient changed from not having the primary endpoint to having the primary endpoint? Especially in an era with a blind reliance on P values, the knowledge of the “fragility” or “robustness” of a study’s P value is another useful data point for readers to critically understand and analyze the results of a clinical trial.