Table of Contents: 2017 MAY–JUNE No. 416
RxNorm June 2017 Release. NLM Tech Bull. 2017 May-Jun;(416):b5.
The June 2017 full monthly release of RxNorm is available as of Monday, June 5, 2017. The June 2017 RxNorm release contains two new Qualitative Distinction (QD) modifiers: Preservative-Free and Atrial Fibrillation. RxNorm also now creates a new concept unique identifier (RXCUI) for an existing RxNorm normalized name to reflect a change in the drug product represented. In the past, RxNorm minimized changes to RXCUIs; however, beginning with the June 2017 release, RXCUIs can change for an existing RxNorm normalized name. The concepts most impacted will be the concepts that group drugs together that need to have separate RXCUIs. When the original concept is split to represent distinct drugs with unique RXCUIs, if the original normalized name is retained, the original RXCUI will be archived and replaced with a new RXCUI.
For example, in the May 2017 release, RXCUI 904603, with Semantic Branded Drug (SBD) name Sotalol Hydrochloride 80 MG Oral Tablet [Betapace]), represented two separate drugs: Betapace 80 MG Oral Tablet -OR- Betapace AF 80 MG Oral Tablet.
| RXCUI | TTY (Term Type) | STR (String) |
|---|---|---|
| 904603 | SBD | Sotalol Hydrochloride 80 MG Oral Tablet [Betapace] |
In the June 2017 release, the RxNorm editing team split RXCUI 904603, creating a new concept RXCUI 1923427 (SBD = Atrial Fibrillation Sotalol Hydrochloride 80 MG Oral Tablet [Betapace]), leaving the original concept to represent only one drug, Betapace 80 MG Oral Tablet.
| RXCUI | TTY (Term Type) | STR (String) |
|---|---|---|
| 1923427 | SBD | Sotalol Hydrochloride 80 MG Oral Tablet [Betapace] |
| 1922766 | SBD | Atrial Fibrillation Sotalol Hydrochloride 80 MG Oral Tablet [Betapace] |
To reflect the change in meaning to RXCUI 904603 in the June 2017 release, the original RXCUI 904603 was archived and a new RXCUI 1923427 was created while keeping the original normalized name. The old and new RXCUIs can be found in the RXNCUI.RRF file along with the Cardinality indicating the number of RXCUIs in which an RXCUI was moved or split.
