Andrew Charlwood
2.4 KiB
Glossary For Medicines Analysts
This is a practical glossary for analysts working with medicines data. It is not clinical guidance.
Medicine Coding
dm+d: Dictionary of medicines and devices. The source of SNOMED product codes used for medicines.
SNOMEDCode: A coded identifier. In medicines queries this is usually a dm+d product code. In clinical coding queries it is usually a clinical event code.
VTM: Virtual Therapeutic Moiety. Broad ingredient-level grouping, useful when you want all products for a medicine substance.
VMP: Virtual Medicinal Product. More specific product family, useful when strength or formulation matters.
AMP: Actual Medicinal Product. Branded or supplier-specific product.
VMPP / AMPP: Pack-level products.
BNFCode: British National Formulary hierarchy code. Useful for broad prescribing sections such as antibiotics or antidepressants.
Activity Sources
Prescribing: Records from GP clinical systems showing prescriptions/issues. More current, but not the same as dispensed supply.
Dispensing: BSA/GPMeds data showing items dispensed and paid. Better for payment-style reporting, usually with a lag.
ProcessingPeriodDate: The month attached to dispensing data.
DateMedicationStart: The prescribing date used in the unified prescribing table.
People And Organisations
PersonKey: Internal person identifier used for linked analysis. Prefer this for patient counts where available.
PatientPseudonym: Pseudonymised patient identifier. Needed for some joins to clinical coding and dispensing.
CurrentGeneralPractice: Practice code attached to the patient or prescribing row.
OrganisationCode / SiteCode: Organisation and site identifiers. For practice-level reporting, use the parent practice row where SiteCode = OrganisationCode unless branch-level reporting is intended.
PCN, Place, Alliance, INT: Organisation hierarchy fields used for grouping practice outputs.
Analysis Terms
Cohort: A defined set of patients meeting criteria.
Denominator: The population used to calculate a rate, for example registered patients at a practice.
Numerator: The count meeting the measure, for example patients prescribed a medicine.
Quintile: One of five ranked groups. Quintile 5 is often used for highest prescribing when ranking from low to high.
Long format: Output where each indicator is a row rather than a separate column. This is useful for appending measures and charting.