The role of the community pharmacist is rapidly expanding. New responsibilities such as supplementary prescribing and Medication Usage Reviews mean that increasingly pharmacists and their support staff require good access to quality medicines information in order to maximise patient safety. Alongside this, there is the continued need for effective business support in the commercial environment.

Integrated into leading community pharmacy systems, Multilex DDF has been used for many years to provide decision support for safer, effective and economical medicines management. Its use right across the healthcare community is facilitating interoperability and 'joined up' care. It also offers easy access to helpful referential product information.

Cost effective dispensing and accurate endorsing are also critical for the successful pharmacy business. The Multilex Endorsement and Reimbursement Toolkit is a sophisticated rules engine that can be incorporated into the pharmacy system, to automatically calculate and ensure correct endorsements of NHS prescriptions.

First DataBank Europe has a large team of in-house pharmacists, clinical researchers and software developers that maintain and support Multilex DDF and related software. First DataBank Europe operates a Quality Management System that is certified to the latest ISO 9001:2000 standard. All clinical information is reviewed and updated regularly in accordance with strict editorial policies to ensure a consistent approach. All operating procedures are audited on a regular basis.

Multilex DDF holds a vast range of information on UK pharmaceutical products and appliances. It contains more than 70,000 records including:

• all branded prescription medicines
• generic medicinal products
• OTC (P + GSL) medicines
• appliances included in the Drug Tariff
• supplementary and specialist dietary foods
• diagnostic and monitoring agents
• homoeopathic remedies
• other NHS prescribable products

The data within Multilex DDF can be viewed in different ways, as short messages and alerts for active checking within clinical systems or as Multilex Monographs for more detailed reference. Data elements contained within Multilex DDF include:

• equivalent products
• active ingredients
• therapeutic class
• licensed uses
• contraindications
• precautions for use
• prescribing guidance
• side effects
• drug-drug interactions
• dosage
• patient counselling advice
• labelling information
• storage conditions
• legal classification
• pack sizes
• manufacturers’ trade prices
• flavours (where appropriate)
• Drug Tariff (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) information
• CSM ‘black triangle’ drugs
• Market status of the product (live, discontinued, withdrawn)
• Indication of whether the product should be prescribed generically, by brand, or by either

Multilex DDF is linked to a wide range of clinical terminologies and coding systems including Read 2, Clinical Terms Version 3, the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) and the Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT).

The database also offers users valuable direct links to Patient Information Leaflets.

Multilex DDF is also used to provide a labelling facility during the dispensing process. This incorporates statutory labels, cautionary and advisory labels, patient counselling advice, additional warnings and patient advisory messages. These warnings can either be automatically incorporated on the label or used as a prompt to the pharmacist giving patient specific counselling advice.

First DataBank Europe also produces an Endorsement and Reimbursement Toolkit which uses the complex regional Drug Tariff endorsing rules to provide automatic prescription endorsement. This results in significant business benefits due to the reduction of manual endorsing and the provision of a wide range of forecasting and management information. The toolkit:

• applies the appropriate Drug Tariff rules
• checks NHS prescribability and prescription type
• identifies patient charges and professional fees
• provides dispensing advice on Drug Tariff rulings