ArticleHRB open research2025
RxTrends: An R-based Shiny Application for Visualising Open Data on Prescribed Medications in Ireland.
Article in HRB open research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- RxTrends: An R-based Shiny Application for Visualising Open Data on Prescribed Medications in Ireland.HRB open research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland releases monthly reports on prescription dispensing claims and payments relating to community drug schemes. This paper describes the implementation of an R-based Shiny application that facilitates interactive visualisation and analysis of trends in medication prescribing and improves the data's practical value, and presents use cases focused on drug utilisation and medication policy questions. Methods: Using Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) data provided by the HSE relating to the means-tested General Medical Services (GMS) scheme covering approximately one-third of the population, an R-based Shiny application was developed. This application uses monthly prescribing and cost data from 2016 up to the most recent data available (currently October 2024) relating to the 100 most commonly prescribed medications (by frequency and cost) and all therapeutic groups. The application leverages a range of R packages to enable users to select medications, therapeutic groups, and physiological systems to explore and compare prescribing and cost trends over time. Results: The RxTrends Shiny application effectively integrates PCRS data, providing multiple functionalities that allow for visualisation of dispensing trends of multiple medications, therapeutic groups and physiological systems. Graphs are available across multiple prescribing frequency and cost metrics and can be restricted to a selected time period. The 'compare' function visualises the proportion of prescribing/cost a selected medication or therapeutic group accounts for within a therapeutic group or physiological system. Use cases relating to Ireland's Preferred Drug Initiative, availability of generic products and reference pricing, and seasonality of drug utilisation are presented. Conclusion: The application provides an interactive interface for stakeholders to visualise and monitor prescribing patterns using data from monthly PCRS reports. The application increases access to and usability of PCRS data for various audiences for whom it may be of interest, including researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers and the general public.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.