Method and system to track customer purchases

• US 8,095,385 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2003
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IQVIA, Inc. (IQVIA Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: IMS Software Services Ltd. (IQVIA Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Feldman, Jay, Wieczkowski, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor, Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pass, Natalie A
• Application Number:
  US10/505,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20060074717A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,245 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 705/2, 705/3, 705/37, 705/26, 705/21, 600/300
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients

Abstract

A system and method for identifying transactions relating to a single customer in a data set received from a plurality of outlets (402), such that one patient'"'"'s (404) pharmaceutical prescription data may be linked (406) to represent the entire pharmaceutical purchases of said patient is disclosed (414).

Claims

1. A system for identifying sales transactions related to a single customer in a data set received from multiple pharmaceutical outlets, comprising:

one or more inputs for receiving patient pharmaceutical prescription information from a plurality of pharmaceutical outlets, said patient pharmaceutical prescription information including information identifying one or more patients and a unique outlet patient identifier for each of said pharmaceutical prescription patients, and for receiving pharmaceutical benefit manager information from one or more pharmaceutical benefit managers, said pharmaceutical benefit manager information including information identifying one or more pharmaceutical benefit manager patients and a unique pharmaceutical benefit manager identifier for each of said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients, said information identifying one or more patients comprising pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients and said information identifying one or more pharmaceutical benefit manager patients comprising pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients;

an identification assignor, coupled to said one or more inputs and receiving said patient pharmaceutical prescription information therefrom, for providing an internal patient identifier for each of said outlet patient identifiers in said patient pharmaceutical prescription information;

a triangulation engine, coupled to said one or more inputs for receiving said pharmaceutical benefit manager information and said patient pharmaceutical prescription information therefrom, for comparing said pharmaceutical benefit manager information to said patient pharmaceutical prescription information, wherein said comparing comprises matching said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients with said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients, and for; and

a storage device, coupled to said identification assignor and receiving said patient pharmaceutical prescription information, said outlet patient identifiers and associated internal patient identifiers therefrom, and coupled to a triangulation engine for receiving pharmaceutical benefit manager identifiers therefrom, and maintaining a table for linking said outlet patient identifiers, said internal identifiers and said pharmaceutical benefit manager identifiers;

wherein said triangulation engine further analyzes said records in said table to ensure that each unique pharmaceutical benefit manager identifier is linked to only one internal identifier and modifying said records such that each unique pharmaceutical benefit manager identifier is linked to only one internal identifier.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second storage device, coupled to said triangulation engine, for storing said table.

3. The system of claim 1, where said storage device comprises a hard disk drive.

4. The system of claim 1, where said storage device comprises a magneto-optical disc.

5. The system of claim 1, where said storage device comprises a relational database.

6. The system of claim 1, where said one or more inputs comprise a network computer server.

7. The system of claim 1, where said one or more inputs comprise a personal computer.

8. The system of claim 1, where said one or more inputs comprise a mainframe computer.

9. A method for identifying sales transactions related to a single customer in a data set received from multiple pharmaceutical outlets, comprising the steps of :

receiving patient pharmaceutical prescription information from a plurality of pharmaceutical outlets, said patient pharmaceutical prescription information including information identifying one or more patients and a unique outlet patient identifier for each of said pharmaceutical prescription patients, said information identifying one or more patients comprising pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients;

receiving pharmaceutical benefit manager information from one or more pharmaceutical benefit managers, said pharmaceutical benefit manager information including information identifying one or more pharmaceutical benefit manager patients and a unique pharmaceutical benefit manager identifier for each of said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients, said information identifying one or more pharmaceutical benefit manager patients comprising pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients;

assigning an internal patient identifier for each of said outlet patient identifiers in said received patient pharmaceutical prescription information;

storing said internal patient identifier and associated outlet patient identifier in a table, said table comprising one record for each associated internal patient identifier and outlet patient identifier pair;

storing said pharmaceutical prescription information in a storage area;

comparing, by a computer processor, said patient pharmaceutical prescription information with said pharmaceutical benefit manager information to determine matches in sales transactions, to define links between said outlet patient identifiers and said pharmaceutical benefit manager identifiers, wherein said comparing comprises matching said pharmaceutical prescription transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients with said pharmaceutical prescription transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients;

updating said table to reflect links between said outlet patient identifiers and said pharmaceutical benefit manager identifiers; and

analyzing said records in said table to ensure that each unique pharmaceutical benefit manager identifier is linked to only one internal identifier and modifying said records such that each unique pharmaceutical benefit manager identifier is linked to only one internal identifier.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of receiving patient pharmaceutical prescription information from a plurality of pharmaceutical outlets comprises receiving said patient pharmaceutical prescription information over a computer network.

11. The method of claim 9, where said step of receiving pharmaceutical benefit manager information from one or more pharmaceutical benefit managers comprises receiving said pharmaceutical benefit manager information over a computer network.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients comprises an Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. #.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients comprises an Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. #.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said comparing comprises matching said Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. # of said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients with said Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. # of said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients comprises an Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. #.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients comprises an Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. #.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said comparing comprises matching said Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. # of said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical prescription patients with said Rx #, outlet number, transaction date, and Dr. # of said pharmaceutical prescription sales transaction information for said pharmaceutical benefit manager patients.