A VOSviewer-Based Bibliometric Analysis of Prescription Refills

PURPOSE: Prescription refills are long-term prescriptions for chronic patients in stable status, which varies from country to country. A well-established prescription refill system is beneficial for chronic patients’ medication management and facilitates the efficacy of clinical care. Therefore, we carried out a bibliometric analysis to examine the development of this field. SUMMARY: Publications on prescription refills from 1970 to 2021 were collected in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Search strategy TS = “prescri* refill*” OR “medi* refill*” OR “repeat prescri*” OR “repeat dispens*” OR TI = refill* was used for search. VOSviewer was applied to visualize the bibliometric analysis. A total of 319 publications were found in WoSCC. Study attention on prescription refills has shown a steady rise but is still low in recent years. The United States was the most productive country, which had the highest total citations, average citations per publication, and the highest H-index, and participated in international collaboration most frequently. The University of California system was the most productive institution. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was the institution with the most citations, most average citation, and highest H-index. Sundell was the most productive author, and Steiner J. F. was the most influential author. “Adherence,” “medication,” and “therapy” were the most prominent keywords. CONCLUSION: Publications on prescription refills have increased rapidly and continue to grow. The United States had the leading position in the area. It is recommended to pay closer attention to the latest hotspots, such as “Opioids,” “Surgery,” “Differentiated care,” and “HIV.”