CUSTOMER SERVICES

As experts in the use of standard terminologies within systems, our customers and national stakeholders seek our support and guidance on matters of compliance with mandatory standards and the linking to clinical terminologies such as the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) and the Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT).

The expertise that First DataBank offers in maintaining and integrating drug and clinical terminologies and ensuring interoperability between systems across healthcare is widely recognised within the industry. Having been awarded several contracts by Connecting for Health (CfH) to supply services such as map validation and dm+d implementation guidance, First DataBank provides ongoing consultancy to support evolving standards.

 Don’t think there is anyone better out there in terms of knowledge and contacts 
Phil Hurst,
The Boots Company Plc
Drug terminology standards
The Multilex Drug Data File (Multilex DDF) Drug Terminology is linked to a wide range of external drug terminologies including Read 2, Clinical Terms Version 3, the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) and regional drug terminologies such as the Irish Pharmaceutical Union codes, the eVADIS codes within the GPASS system in Scotland and the Medusa drug codes used in pharmacy systems in Wales, as well as certain proprietary drug terminologies.

dm+d integration
First DataBank provides links between Multilex DDF products and dm+d codes to enable customers to be compliant with requirements for the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). This includes translation of units of measure and a flag to indicate products for which EPS messaging is mandatory

 Very good industry knowledge 
Chris Pratt,
CSE Healthcare LimitedFor customers using dm+d as the drug terminology within their system, support for building and filtering a pick list together with Multilex DDF decision support is available to minimise disruption from switching terminologies.

For customers wishing to change their drug terminology from Multilex DDF to the dm+d, First DataBank is facilitating migration by providing access to dm+d, for use in primary or secondary care, from within the Multilex Drug Data File, thereby reducing the amount of development time needed to make the switch between terminologies.

Clinical terminology standards
In order to check the drug contraindications against the patient conditions recorded in the Electronic Health Record, First DataBank supports links between the Multilex DDF conditions and Read 2 and Clinical Terms Version 3. 

SNOMED CT integration
For customers using SNOMED CT, First DataBank also offers two SNOMED CT based modules. The SNOMED CT based condition checking module allows SNOMED CT encoded patient data to be used to determine whether a drug is contraindicated for a patient. The sensitivity checking module uses SNOMED CT substance codes to determine whether a patient allergy is in the same allergy group or cross reactor group as a selected medication.