The Ozempic Phenomenon

Ozempic — originally prescribed as a treatment for diabetes — continues to receive notoriety as more and more people use it as a weight loss medication. Ozempic is not currently FDA approved for weight loss purposes and hosts a series of known side effects.

PointClickCare explains:

What is Ozempic?

Ozempic is from a class of medications called GLP-1s (or glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists) and  works by binding GLP-1 receptors to stimulate insulin release from the pancreas when you need insulin. Ozempic is commonly prescribed to manage the blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. However, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of individuals using Ozempic for weight loss. That’s because the medication lowers the amount of sugar released by your liver and slows down the food leaving your stomach to help lower your blood sugar levels, potentially reduce your appetite.

With our PointClickCare Life Sciences data set, the largest data set of long-term care and skilled nursing facility residents available, we’re able to provide stakeholders with a high-quality data source for patients 65 and older. Diseases like diabetes and heart conditions are common among this population, so it’s critical to include them when seeking to understand daily side effects and to strengthen the case for FDA submissions and approvals.

Why EHR Data Is Better

While many other sources use insurance claims data, PointClickCare Life Sciences data comes from comprehensive electronic health records (EHR). With EHR, you have access to medical records showing disease progression and comorbidities, real-time data on factors such as drug side-effects and cost of care, and medication data that not only describes the medication, but also provides information on blood pressure and other vitals. The PointClickCare EHR data set allows for a deeper understanding of specific cohorts with detailed demographic and biometric information.

PointClickCare Life Sciences Ozempic Data

At PointClickCare, we also track the number of Ozempic prescriptions at long-term care and skilled nursing facilities when a type 2 diabetes diagnosis is absent. The chart below reflects a 175% increase year-over-year and a 6,675% increase when compared to 5 years ago of Ozempic use with no type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

PointClickCare Life Sciences data from the EHR can track these data points to understand the impact of Ozempic on an older patient population, including, but not limited to, potential side effects, impact on commodities, daily activity levels, BMI, and other anonymized patient data. With these insights, life science stakeholders can continue to understand the impact of Ozempic on the aging population without a diabetes diagnosis.