Similar data are often available through health insurance or health maintenance organisations. Reimbursement systems, which operate in a number of countries at the national level provide comprehensive dispensing data down to the individual prescription level, as all prescriptions are submitted and recorded for reimbursement.
Alternatively, sample data can be collected manually. Computerised pharmacies can easily collect data on drugs dispensed.
National registries should as a minimum include the following variables: It is recommended to have a common structure of these pharmaceutical products registries. The national medicines list and ATC/DDDs should be linked at the level of the unique product identifier. The number of DDDs per package should be calculated for each product package and this information should be added to the pharmaceutical products registry. Many countries have established systems of unique identifiers for pharmaceutical products at the package level.
If possible, this work should be done on a national basis to secure consistent use of the methodology within a country.
Atc4 rating definition code#
In order to achieve this, it is of vital importance that the officially correct ATC code is assigned to each pharmaceutical product package. For monitoring and comparing drug use internationally it is important to ensure that the data retrieved are comparable, in other words that the ATC groups from different countries, regions or health facilities do have the expected content. When the decision to introduce and use the ATC/DDD methodology is taken, it is essential to realize that its proper use inevitably includes an important and time-consuming first step: Each pharmaceutical product has to be linked to the appropriate ATC code and DDD. Implementation and maintenance of the ATC/DDD methodology