A few weeks ago, I was privileged to walk with several thousand other Chicago folks to protest all the hundreds of children shot in our city over the last year or so.  The march took place in the evening and ended in front of the old Cook County Hospital.  Looking at  the architecturally distinctive hospital I couldn’t help think how many people have walked through their doors for free medical care in their ER, trauma centers or outpatient clinics.  As everyone was listening to all the speeches, I was wondering if IMS measured all the prescriptions written in their clinics or how ZS considered these type places in their models for sales force alignment.

The Huffington Post had a piece last week discussing the huge growth in community health centers, where many poor and uninsured go for medical services.  They report that there has been an 18% growth in usage over the last three years with now over 20 million people receiving care in these clinics.  There are 8500 of these clinics around the US and the article announced a large government expenditure to build even more of these facilities in the near future.  Many of these clinics have their own pharmacies for those who use the facilities.  Again, the question would be how much of this business is captured in the numbers used by the industry to measure prescriptions and allocate resources. Continue reading →