Break two legs!

On Sunday 26 March 2006 22:28, Kevin Toppenberg wrote:
I thought I would give a status report.

Again, I am working of a way to populate the VA PRODUCT file from FDA
data that they update on their website every 3 months.

1. I have realized that before I can add drugs, I must add the
underlying ingredients to the DRUG INGREDIENT file.

2. Many of the drug ingredients are related, e.g.
  CAFFEINE <-- already in database
  CAFFEINE CITRATE <--- new import

  So CAFFEINE CITRATE will be added as a new ingredient, but its
PRIMARY INGREDIENT field will point to the preexisting record for
CAFFEINE.  Thus any drug allergy or drug interaction that is tied to
CAFFEINE would, by extension, tied also to CAFFEINE CITRATE.  (I am
assuming this is how it works, I hope I am not wrong)

  So I have created a process whereby the computer tries to make a
best guess as to the primary ingredient--generally by trimming,
successively, words from the name and repeatedly searching for the
ever-shortening name.  If a match is found, then it is put into a list
for a user to review.  About 60% of the time this works.  If not match
is found, this also will be reviewed by the user.

A long numbered list of potential matches is then presented to the
user.  If a match is correct, the item can be selected for acceptance
(ranges such as 100-150 are allowed).  Or the user can do a custom
lookup to find a better match.  Or many have no apparent match (no
preexisting primary ingredient in the database), so they can just be
entered as is.

I initially had the user answer yes/no questions about acceptibility,
but when I realized that I had about 1,000 entries to process, I
changed to the method above.

I keep thinking I am just about ready to load the data into the VA
PRODUCT file, and then I find something more to be done, but soon I
will be there.

After that I will explore populating the DRUG file (50) from the VA
PRODUCT file.  And after that, I think I will be able to use Norman
Doddss code to make the drugs appear in CPRS.

Wish me (fool's) luck

Kevin


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-- 
Nancy Anthracite


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