Re: [Health-dev] Fw: Medication quantity and medication units (UOM)

[Luis Falcon]

Hi Andrew !

On Fri, 27 Feb 2015 11:56:36 +0000 (GMT)
"address@hidden" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Hello Luis
> 
> In the UK the primary care prescriber (GP) must be very specific 
> about the quantity of a medication to be dispensed to a patient by
> the pharmacist. The quantity units may be:
> 
> tablet
> capsule
> mL
> vial
> bottle
> syringe
> 
> pack
> tube
> patch
> 
> etc. etc.
> 
> ***Note mL is more complex to calculate as the 
> medication strength might be 125mg/5mL and the prescribed dose for a
> child might be 75mg (3mL).
> 

In GNU Health, currently we have "Form" (eg, capsule) "Dose" (absolute
value) and "Dose unit" (the UoM). Current values of unit are (mL,mg,
ug, L, Kg, mmol, unit ). In your example, "capsule" would go in the
"Form" field, and NOT in the dose UoM.

Look at todays demo db, in the inpatient medication for Ana. I just put
back the "mg" as the dose unit, and use form "capsule", and finally,
the absolute value of "500" x 1 . That would traduce in "1 tablet of
500 mg"

Now, in the case of suspensions / solutions things get a bit trickier,
and I agree with you we can work on a generic solution.
Let's put the ibuprofen example, on the pediatric population, we have :
 
- the recommended dose for the condition (eg, 10 mg/kg of weight)
- The specific concentration (eg 100 mg/5mL - 20mg/mL -) or 40 mg/mL 

I believe the concentration strength should be part of the medicament
(drug), because it's specific to it, and it should come directly to
the medication form when choosing the drug.

So, getting the field concentration (for suspensions) value from the
drug form, and the child age and weight, we can automatically get the
dosage. 

Actually, to could even use the base condition of the patient to
further optimize it, although I don't consider it that important at
this point.

Anyways, you are the expert on this area, so please let me know your
thoughts and the best way to approach.

Best,
Luis