Data element "Strength Qualifier"

[tammara....@gmail.com]

I was reviewing the data elements presented on Monday (screen shot of slide is attached). Does “Strength qualifier”= dose? 

 

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Tammara (Massey) Jean Paul

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[Janet Johns]

Hi Tammara

 

No, strength is not the same as dosage.  The strength is the concentration of the medication and dosing is administration units.

 

(from HITSP C83)

The strength should be in the coded product or brand name if it describes the strength or concentration of the medication.

The dosing is in administration units (e.g., 1 tablet, 2 capsules).

[Chad Garner]

I think there is some confusion in the terminology that we are using. I don't know the HITSP C32 standard at all, so I can't speak to it. Neither the NIEM nor ASAP contain anything called Strength Qualifier, so I'm not sure exactly what this is. If it is "Strength", as Janet mentions, such as 5mg/ml, then this is derived from the NDC code. If it is Dosage Unit, called Drug Dosage Units Code in ASAP 4.2, then this is Each (ea), milliliters (ml) or grams (gm). This still does not tell you the actual daily dose that a patient is receiving. This mostly valuable when you are dealing with a pure substance, like Testosterone Powder. A simple quantity really wouldn't tell you anything without it. It still does not tell you if the patient is to take 3 caps per day or 2-3 caps per day. Again, I don't know about HITSP C32, but the Drug Dosage Units Code is available in ASAP 4.2. The NIEM format was created based on ASAP 4.1, which did not have this value, so the NIEM does not currently have it, but will be updated at some point to reflect the changes in ASAP.

Chad Garner

Chief Technical Officer

Ohio State Board of Pharmacy