Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set - Public Review

 The first release of the new national drug terminology, the Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set will be published by Health Canada and Canada Health Infoway.

The Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set is a national drug terminology based on Health Canada’s Drug Product Database that is freely available. It will provide a consistent approach to the identification and naming of medications, resulting in a drug terminology solution that allows PrescribeIT and other digital health solutions to share information about drug products and groups of drug products with otherwise incompatible proprietary systems used in practice management, pharmacy management, and provincial drug information systems. The Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set will include manufactured products and therapeutically equivalent (i.e. generic) medications and a few frequently prescribed devices.

The Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set will not replace the Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD), it will be owned and published by Health Canada in addition to the DPD (with monthly updates). In most cases, the Canadian Clinical Drug Data set will be used as an interchange technology. Clinical systems will continue to use their existing drug terminology and interfaces while mapping to the Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set. When these systems share drug information, e.g. an electronic prescription, they will share the standardized Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set codes.

In preparation for publication, vendors, clinicians and other stakeholders interested in medication safety are invited to participate in the public review period from June 7 to July 7, 2017. Feedback is requested on the file structure of the Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set and application of editorial guidelines to a small volume of representative content.

To learn how to contribute to this review, please join the InfoCentral Medication Management Community on June 8 from 11:30-12:30 ET for a webinar outlining how to contribute to this review.

For more information about the Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or join the Medication Management Community, for access to relevant discussions and resources, including the Introduction to Canada’s New Drug Terminology and the Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set Editorial Guidelines.