Medfinder Data Verification Methodology

Medfinder helps patients locate pharmacies that may be able to fill a prescription. Our public shortage tracker summarizes availability signals from Medfinder pharmacy checks, patient search activity, and official public sources such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Drug Shortages database.

Public tracker data is intended to show directional availability and shortage conditions. It is not medical advice, a guarantee that a pharmacy can fill a prescription, or a substitute for guidance from a clinician or pharmacist.

Data Sources

• Medfinder pharmacy checks: Aggregated outcomes from pharmacy availability checks performed during Medfinder searches.
• Patient search activity: Aggregated demand signals from patients searching for medications through Medfinder.
• FDA shortage records: Public shortage status, posting dates, manufacturer availability notes, and related status details from the FDA Drug Shortages database.

How Pharmacy Availability Is Checked

Medfinder availability checks ask whether a pharmacy reports that a specific medication, strength, form, or related fill option is currently available. Depending on the search, checks may be performed by automated calling systems, human support agents, or follow-up verification workflows.

A pharmacy check is counted only after Medfinder receives a usable availability outcome. Public pages aggregate those outcomes and do not expose patient identities, pharmacy-level patient details, or private search records.

How Public Metrics Are Defined

• Total pharmacy checks: The number of Medfinder pharmacy availability outcomes counted for the medication during the displayed reporting window.
• In-stock rate: In-stock reports divided by total pharmacy checks, rounded to the nearest whole percent. Regional rows with a non-zero rate below 1% may show one decimal place.
• Availability score: A Medfinder summary score based on recent pharmacy check outcomes and availability signals for the medication.
• Patient shortage reports: Aggregated patient search demand for the medication over the reporting period.
• Last verified: The most recent date Medfinder refreshed the public shortage tracker data for that medication.
• Last in-stock report: The most recent date a Medfinder pharmacy check found an in-stock signal for that medication, when available.

Refresh Cadence

Public shortage tracker pages are recomputed every 6 hours from Medfinder's internal availability and search datasets. FDA shortage records are ingested daily before the morning shortage tracker refresh, and medication name normalization is refreshed daily. Individual medication pages show the latest public data refresh date in the verification snapshot. The current public refresh field is date-level, so pages show the refresh date rather than the exact run timestamp.

Pharmacy check counts and in-stock rates on public shortage pages use a last 30 days reporting window. FDA status and Medfinder availability metrics can change independently because they come from different source systems and refresh jobs.

Data Quality Controls

• Availability outcomes are aggregated before appearing on public tracker pages.
• Public pages distinguish FDA shortage status from Medfinder pharmacy availability signals.
• Medication aliases, brand names, generic names, and related dose forms are normalized before appearing in tracker pages.
• Low-signal or unavailable metrics are displayed as unavailable rather than inferred.

Limitations

Medication availability can change quickly. A pharmacy may report that a medication is available during a check and later be unable to fill a prescription because of timing, prescription requirements, insurance, quantity limits, controlled-substance rules, pharmacy policy, or other operational constraints.

Medfinder does not publish patient-level search data or guarantee that a public tracker page reflects the status of every pharmacy in a region. Patients should confirm next steps with their prescriber, pharmacist, or care team.

Permitted Use of Public Data

Medfinder publishes shortage tracker summaries, regional availability snapshots, and public JSON feeds to help patients, caregivers, clinicians, and health care organizations understand directional medication availability signals. Use of this public shortage and availability data is subject to our Terms of Service. Scraping, bulk extraction, republication, resale, model training or evaluation, competitive benchmarking, lead generation, or use of the data to build, support, or improve a competing product or service is not permitted without Medfinder's prior written permission or a separate written agreement.

Corrections and Questions

If you believe a public shortage tracker page contains outdated or incorrect information, contact Medfinder through the contact page. Requests involving personal data are handled under our Privacy Policy and Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.