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Concordance
Computer systems
Product identification
Council elections
The Council
Letters to the Editor
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Product identification
Time to work together
From Mr A. Gledhill, MRPharmS
I would like to request that all suppliers of drug
database information software work together to use a common generic code
which will identify a particular product irrespective of pack size or
manufacturer. An example would be "Atenolol tablets 100mg".
Such a code would be useful in a variety of ways.
If printed as a bar code on patient packs it could be used to scan issues
and stock returns to prescribing or stock control systems. It could be
used by authorised hospital staff to scan patients' own medicines into
the hospital computer system on admission. It could be used to link up
GP/community/hospital prescribing/dispensing software. It could be used
to update regional drug contract catalogue data, etc. I understand some
of the software suppliers who would need to work together are AAH, ASC,
Drug Tariff, EMIS, First Databank, NDC Health, Pharmed, the Prescription
Pricing Authority and UniChem.
No doubt some of these parties are already considering
using such a common code and I would suggest using the freely available
eDrugID code from First Databank (www.firstdatabank.co.uk)
as a means to move forward quickly.
As well as increasing patient safety it would simplify
and make the prescribing and dispensing process far more efficient.
Andrew Gledhill
Burnley, Lancashire
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ROBIN GLASSPOOLE, business development manager,
First DataBank Europe Ltd, comments:
The importance of having a nationally accepted
drug identifier has been appreciated for some time. Previous initiatives
have failed to deliver an acceptable number. However, there is now
growing expectation that two Government projects will provide a
satisfactory solution. It is important that pharmacists are aware
of these two projects because they will be crucial for the success
of many of the information technology developments that are expected
to revolutionise health care practice in the near future, eg, electronic
transfer of prescriptions pilots.
First, there is the Primary Care Drug Dictionary
(PCDD) which has been initiated by the Department of Health and
the Prescription Pricing Authority. Second, the NHS Information
Authority is running a project known as the United Kingdom Clinical
Products Reference Source (UKCPRS). The two projects have been working
closely together to give a "federal" approach in providing a stable
drug identifier which will address the issues highlighted by Mr
Gledhill. The PCDD is expected to be fully populated by the first
quarter of 2003 with the UKCPRS being available from 2004. Further
information can be found about the PCDD
and the UKCPRS.
The combined solution will have relevance to both
primary and secondary care. The drug dictionaries have been designed
with the intention that they can meet the varied working needs of
different health care practitioners in prescribing, dispensing and
contracting scenarios, etc. Many of the software suppliers mentioned
have been involved in both the design, use, case testing and implementation
discussions. Their considerable experience has helped with the development
of these projects.
First DataBank Europe decided to release eDrugID
in March 2001 to meet the immediate need of providing a standard
textual drug descriptor and a stable set of drug identifiers. At
the time we saw this as a suitable mechanism for providing a standard
that anyone could freely use while the DoH initiatives were being
developed. We foresee that the need for eDrugID will disappear once
the PCDD and UKCPRS projects are delivered.
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