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Hydroxychloroquine Oral Suspensions

Posting to the forum from github issue per request from @Christian_Reich :slight_smile:

One of our partner sites has Hydroxychloroquine as a 25MG/ML Oral Suspension present in their source data but the closest concept in the vocabulary is Hydroxychloroquine 24 MG/ML Oral Suspension.

Looking further at the source data, the Hydroxychloroquine as a 25MG/ML Oral Suspension is actually a custom pharmacy made suspension made from the following ingredients:

  • Hydroxychloroquine 200mg tablets, Ora-Plus, Sterile water for irrigation, 70% ethyl alcohol**

We are currently mapping to Hydroxychloroquine Oral Suspension. However, we wanted to consult the forum to determine if anyone else has come across this in their source data and get guidance on what would be the best concept to map to?

Thanks, @burrowse.

This is an interesting situation, as HCQ doesn’t sell in the US as suspension, only in the UK and other countries. There it is 120 mg/teaspoon (=5 mL), which comes out to 24 mg/mL, which is what you are finding in RxNorm Extension.

What this is is a compounded drug preparation, i.e. the pharmacy makes it from the ingredient. Kind of like in the 19th century. They still do those things from time to time. Apparently, your pharmacy creates a suspension from the oral tablets, to make it easier for children.

The way you record this is scenario 9 of the DOSE_ERA description. You also need to get the amount. Let’s assume it is a teaspoon, and let’s assume it is administered in the hospital one teaspoon at a time.

  • drug_concept_id=1777087 (Hydroxychloroquine)
  • quantity=125 (25 mg/mL * 5 mL)
  • day_supply=1 (single administration)

That’s it. Don’t put anything into dose_unit_concept_id (if you still carry it), because the DRUG_STRENGTH table tells you HCQ is measured in mg. And because you are recording an ingredient (=divisible entity) quantity refers to the amount value, not the number of units.

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