The issues that are outstanding at the moment from my perspective are:
· How to allow concatenation of Drug, form and dose at varying degrees of granularity. I.e. Ibuprofen; tablet; 400mg as three items, Ibuprofen tablet; 400mg as two items, Ibuprofen 400mg; tablet as two items, Ibuprofen tablet 400mg as one item. There is ongoing work to look at this and come up with a means that all are equivalent - not sure how far this has got - will chase up
· What to record in terms of the drug name – do we include the trade and generic – either or both. We also need to allow in many jurisdictions for the fact that the pharmacist may be able to substitute another brand even if the trade name is given. In my opinion you must record the actual drug which is given to the patient so in dm+d terms (dictionary of medical devices and drug) a pharmacist states the AMPP (actual medical product pack - antipressan 50mg (Tera UK Ltd) 28 tablet (2x14 tablets)) that is dispensed. When prescribing it is reasonable for this to be done by stating VTM (Virtual therapeutic moeity - e.g. atenolol), VMP (virtual medicinal product - atentolol 50mg tablets) or AMP (Actual medicinal product - antipressan 50mg (Tera UK Ltd)
· How comprehensive to make it in regard to all the possible complexities of drug administration. I think we should start with the root that will allow growth to immunisations, formulations and more complex orders (specifically medications in infustions)
Regards
Steve