Proposal: Add UCUM unit “ea”

Vocabulary Users
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1

Hello OHDSI Vocabulary Team,

I would like to propose adding the UCUM unit “ea” (each) to the OMOP Standard Vocabulary.

1. Background

  • In both Korean healthcare data and international contexts, ea is widely used to indicate “each”, i.e., a count of individual items such as syringes, stents, implants, or other medical devices.

2. UCUM Reference

  • UCUM (Unified Code for Units of Measure) recognizes ea as each, representing individual item units.
  • UCUM documentation: https://ucum.org/

3. Proposal

  • Add ea as a standard unit_concept in OMOP, with:
    • concept_name: each
    • concept_code: ea
    • vocabulary_id: UCUM
    • concept_class_id: Unit

4. Rationale

  • This will allow ETL processes to map individual item counts correctly, avoiding misuse of ratio concepts.
  • It will also improve data clarity and consistency across studies and international datasets.

I hope the team considers this addition for the next Athena Vocabulary release. Thank you.

2

@Zion_Jung:

You want to use this unit: Generic unit for indivisible thing, or 1.

4

wow, thank you for your guidance!
I’ll use concept_id 32912 as you suggested.
really appreciate your help.

5

You are welcome. :slight_smile: Sorry for the terse tone. Was under time pressure.

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