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RxNorm Completes the Prescribable Names Project

RxNorm Completes the Prescribable Names Project. NLM Tech Bull. 2017 Mar-Apr;(415):b5.

April 04, 2017 [posted]

The April full monthly RxNorm release, available as of April 3, 2017, includes Prescribable Names (PSN).

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is delighted to announce that the April 2017 RxNorm monthly release contains Prescribable Names (TTY=PSN) for all RxNorm normal forms for active human drugs sold in the United States (US) with a few exceptions. Drugs without PSNs include allergenic extracts and certain forms containing three or more ingredients. PSNs are user-friendly synonyms of RxNorm SCD/SBD/GPCK/BPCK concepts and are meant to be used as display names in e-prescribing systems. Unlike other RxNorm synonyms (TTY=SY and TTY=TMSY), there can only be a single PSN associated with an RxNorm concept (i.e., RXCUI). RxNorm editors create PSNs based upon the drug packaging in the Structured Product Labels (SPLs) on DailyMed. PSNs may contain common ingredient abbreviations and Tall Man lettering, and their strengths may not be normalized as they are in the SCD/SBD/GPCK/BPCK names.

PSNs were first introduced in the July 2014 release of RxNorm. NLM would like to thank the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for help with funding this project, and the National Council For Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) for help with organizing content discussions with stakeholders. The addition of PSNs to RxNorm is a major step towards improving the efficiency and accuracy of drug information management in e-prescribing systems.