Uppsala Monitoring Centre Newsletter Issue nr 2, June - 2011

The second quarter of 2011 is here and the Uppsala Monitoring Centre’s new Drug Dictionary China will be launched, the upcoming WHO Drug Dictionary User Group Meeting will take place in Brussels, the UMC continues to develop new SDGs and lastly we would like to inform you about the Japanese Cross Reference Tool.


The New Drug Dictionary China – The Code to China

It is now here. The new Drug Dictionary China, which translates Chinese character medicinal product names into the WHO DDE global coding system. This conversion gives you direct access to a collection of up-to-date medicinal product information and analytical tools which is contained within the WHO DDE for drugs used in China; it also includes Traditional Chinese Medicines.
A world premiere for the new Drug Dictionary China is going to be held at the 47th DIA Annual meeting in Chicago, IL on June 19-23, 2011.
Come and meet us in Chicago!
Read more about the new Drug Dictionary China www.CodetoChina.com


The WHO Drug Dictionary User Group Meeting in Europe Brussels

The WHO Drug Dictionary User Group Meeting in Europe will take place in Brussels, on September 15th, 2011.
At the 2010 User Group meetings the groups talked about how the dictionary is used in everyday work – how this can be used as input to the developers of coding software and how we can develop
‘Best Practices’ based on these discussions. Best Practices have now been published as drafts and more are underway. At the User Group meeting in Brussels we will – among other things – develop these practices further with the coded data in mind; from the preparation of a clinical trial to the data collection and coding, data storage, analysis and interpretation.
Sign up at the User Group Portal to take part of what's new and ongoing in the WHO Drug Dictionaries.
Contact us at drugdictionary@umc-products.com to let us know if there are any speakers or topics that you would like to be present at the meeting.


Standardised Drug Groupings (SDGs) – Continues to Develop

In 2010 the first Standardised Drug Groupings were launched – additional classifications and lists that can be used in the preparation of Medication of Interest lists and for the analysis of coded data.
The work continues in 2011 – a new working group will put together new groupings, which will be prioritized and developed.
Please, let us know if you would like to suggest a new SDG or if you want to learn more about the SDGs. We welcome old as well as new members in the SDG Working Group.
Contact us at drugdictionary@umc-products.com if you want to participate – or if you want to know more about how the group is going to develop the new groupings.


Launch of the Japanese Cross Reference Tool

The UMC has together with ‘Ijoken’ - the maintenance organization Iyakuhinmey Data File (IDF) in Japan – created a Cross Reference Tool that will make it easy to find the WHO Drug Dictionary Enhanced code that corresponds to a selected code in the IDF dictionary (in Japanese). This will make it easy and possible to analyze IDF-coded data with the tools included in the WHO Drug Dictionary Enhanced. This tool is now being tested by few Japanese pharmaceutical companies and it will be launched in June, 2011.