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Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®)

RxNorm Release Notes

February Release - 02/07/2011

This release of RxNorm is consistent with the 2010AB UMLS Metathesaurus release. For additional information about RxNorm releases, including scripts for loading the RxNorm data into Oracle and MySQL databases, read the RxNorm Documentation.

Sources

The following sources have been updated since the previous RxNorm release:

Source NameSABDate Updated
Gold Standard Alchemy GS 01/02/2011
Medi-Span Master Drug Data Base MDDB 01/05/2011
Multum MediSource Lexicon MMSL 01/01/2011
Micromedex RED BOOK MMX 01/03/2011
FDA National Drug Code Directory MTHFDA 01/03/2011
FDA Structured Product Labels MTHSPL 01/28/2011
First DataBank NDDF Plus Source Vocabulary NDDF 01/05/2011
Veterans Health Administration National Drug File - Reference Terminology NDFRT 02/07/2011
Veterans Health Administration National Drug File VANDF 12/28/2010

 

The following sources have not been updated since the previous RxNorm release:

Source NameSABDate Updated
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MSH 08/30/2010
SNOMED Clinical Terms (drug information) SNOMEDCT 07/31/2010

 

Data Changes

The February release of RxNorm includes NDCs from an additional source - First DataBank (SAB=NDDF). For unbranded drugs only, we associated their NDCs with their drug name atoms. For both unbranded and branded drugs, we normalized their NDCs and associated them with RxNorm drug name atoms (SAB=RXNORM). The RXNSAT.RRF file contains the NDCs.

Additionally, we updated our suppression process for obsolete data from MMSL, MTHSPL, NDDF, and VANDF. We now mark drug name atoms (in RXNCONSO.RRF) and NDC attributes (in RXNSAT.RRF) as SUPPRESS=O if they are labeled as obsolete by their original source. Obsolete NDCs are no longer normalized and associated with RxNorm drug name atoms.

As a result of these changes, there are more source-asserted NDCs and more OCD atoms since the January RxNorm release. The February release also contains fewer SAB=RXNORM normalized NDCs, which is more representative of the set of drugs that are currently prescribable in the US.

Data Counts

Term Type or AttributeNumber
Active GPCK forms 306
Active BPCK forms 386
Active SCD forms 19,057
Active SBD forms 16,370
Active RXNORM MIN atoms 3,609
Active RXNORM IN atoms 4,943
Active RXNORM PIN atoms 1,547
Active RXNORM BN atoms 14,803
Active RXNORM DF atoms 100
   
Obsolete GPCK forms 46
Obsolete BPCK forms 20
Obsolete SCD forms 13,884
Obsolete SBD forms 4,091
Obsolete RXNORM MIN atoms 0
Obsolete RXNORM IN atoms 0
Obsolete RXNORM PIN atoms 0
Obsolete RXNORM BN atoms 0
Obsolete RXNORM DF atoms 55
OCD atoms 273,428
   
Source-asserted NDC codes 783,389
Distinct Source-asserted NDC codes 423,563
SAB=RXNORM NDC codes 236,534
Distinct SAB=RXNORM NDC codes 236,534

Last Reviewed: February 7, 2011