Well, I have reached a bit of a milestone in my FDA drug import project, so thought I would write about it here.
I have done the following: 1. Gotten the FDA drug database (in ~5 separate files), and imported each file into temporary files. 2. Scanned the existing drug database for pre-existing drugs and marked these FDA drugs to be ignored. 3. I scan for new ingredients and add those needed. 4. I create new entries in the VA Generic file (a GENERIC name is a long list of ingredients) if needed, or match to pre-existing entries. 5. For the new drugs, I scan for *similar* pre-existing drug, based on ingredients and names. 6. For all new drugs, a drug class should be assigned. I use the drug class of the similar pre-existing drug as a potential drug classification. This isn't assigned, however, until approved by the user. I have had to write tools to achieve each of the tasks above. Its taken about 4,000 lines of code (expanded format) for this. So what I am particularily happy is that I have just finished classifying all the new drugs. I started out with 12,000 (!) new drugs to classify and I never thought I would finish. But with some added tools, I have been able to finish it in about 4 days. So all my changes have been to set up a custom file: TMG FDA IMPORT COMPILED. From here, new records will be added to the VA PRODUCT file. The next step will be to compile the new additions into the DRUG file (#50), filtering for duplicates etc.. And from there, I hope that I will be able to use Norman Dodd's code to make the new drugs show up in CPRS. Since I have started all this, the FDA has released a new installment of the database (they release every 3 months). So I will run through the entire process again with the new data, and hopefully there won't more than a handful of new drugs. And then I can do this 4 times a year to keep current, and will probably be able to automate it. Anyway, I hope that I am something like 60% done with this project. Kevin ------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid0709&bid&3057&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
