Re: [Gnumed-devel] clin_medication

[Ian Haywood]

On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 11:08:22PM +0200, Karsten Hilbert wrote:
> I must admit I am at loss as to how to interpret that "form"
> business ?
> 
> > The extent to which clin_medication has to replicate a drug database 
> > to store script information is an open question.
> IMO clin_medication should pointedly NOT replicate a drug
> database. It should store drug information in a way as to
> facilitate identification of the drug in *any* drug database
> *regardless* of source database.

That's the problem!
Just storing a drug database ID code is the easy solution. 
Big problem: you're locked into your choice of drug DB, if you switch,
you can't read your old data.
Small problem: not all databases guarantee such an ID across time.
ATC would be nice, but it falls down hard with compounds: it has entries
like "Ramipril and diuretic".

Storing other information gets hairy, as you need to store compounds
etc. Form *is* important: chloramphenical eye drops are not the same as
chloramphenicol IV infusion, agree my lists are very arbitrary and
mapping to other databases gets hard, if people have ideas for
improvement please speak up!

Ian

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