Non-standard drug type concepts

[Rowdy]

Hi all,

I am Rowdy, affiliated with the Amsterdam UMC hospital. We are currently working on the implementation of OMOP CDM to provide researchers with clinical data. Specifically, we are now focusing on the drug_exposure table.

We want to implement administered drugs and prescriptions of drugs into the drug_exposure table, which is compliant with OMOP according to the Github page with OMOP table definitions. To distinguish between these two source tables, we want to make use of the type concept ids. However, we believe the current standard type concepts are not fully representative for this. For now, we have chosen the “EHR dispensing record” concept for administered drugs but dispensed is not exactly the same as administered. For prescriptions we have chosen “EHR prescription” which is not necessarily focused on drug prescriptions.

We noticed that there are non-standard drug type concepts which are more specific like “Physician administered drug (identified as procedure)” or “prescription written”.

Would it be best to be standard compliant and be less accurate or choose the non-standard concepts and be more accurate?

Also, out of curiosity. Why are the drug type concept ids non-standard and do they still have a purpose? It seems in the Book of OHDSI they were standard at one point.

Thank you for your help,

Rowdy

[MPhilofsky (Melanie Philofsky)]

Hello @Rowdy,

Yes, we have standard concept for EHR administration record.

In Athena, select domain = type concept and concept = standard for the list of all standard type concept ids. *See screenshot below

@Rowdy

Would it be best to be standard compliant and be less accurate or choose the non-standard concepts and be more accurate?

ALWAYS insert the standard concept in a standard concept field. And if there isn’t a standard concept for the variable you seek to represent, create an issue on the vocabulary GitHub. We all have to insert our data into the OMOP CDM using the same rules, requirements and conventions or we won’t be able to enable reliable and reproducible real-world research.

@Rowdy

For prescriptions we have chosen “EHR prescription” which is not necessarily focused on drug prescriptions.

The term might not say “EHR drug prescription”, but since the record is in the Drug Exposure table, you know it is a drug prescription coming from the EHR.

[Rowdy]

Hi @MPhilofsky,

Thanks for your reply, this made a lot clear for us!