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Visit density around decadal birthdays. Panels (a) and (b) of the figure plot the density tests for visits with unfamiliar and familiar patients, respectively. The figure on the right shows number of visits by days relative to a patient's nearest decadal birthday, 50 days before and 50 days after the decadal birthday. The vertical solid line represents the decadal birthday threshold. The figure on the left plots the estimated visit density 180 days before and 180 days after the decadal birthday
Source publication
We study whether primary care physicians (PCPs) exercise left digit bias with respect to patients' age. Relying on a comprehensive administrative visit level data from a large Israeli HMO, we measure the intensity of patients' medical examination in visits that take place around a decadal birthday—a birthday that ends with zero—within a regression...
Citations
This study investigates the implications of increased internet penetration on demand in the context of pharmaceutical prescribing. The internet has changed the information and tools available to make decisions in complex tasks such as those made by physicians, and any impact on prescribing patterns has implications for the marketing activities of drug manufacturers, necessitating a strategic rethink of business practices. This study conceptualizes the prescription decision‐making process through the lens of expectancy value theory. The unique research design allows for the observation of contrasting internet penetration rates of geographically distributed physicians over an extended time period in multiple drug categories. Modeling physician behavior as a combination of learning, peer effects, and face‐to‐face detailing by pharmaceutical firms, the study finds that the growth of the internet has a significant moderating impact on detailing efforts. Interestingly, the study also documents the interaction between learning and peer effects, as well as how the internet ultimately reduces reliance on prior prescription behavior (prescribing inertia) for the four Cardiovascular drug categories under consideration. We discuss the implications of these findings for R&D managers, marketers, and policymakers.
