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Medication Fields Data Entry

Introduction​

In a text box field in a REDCap project, a special feature can be enabled that provides auto-suggest functionality for real-time searching within biomedical ontologies, such as RxNorm, ICD-9, ICD-10, Snomed CT, LOINC, etc. The ontology serves as a validation by providing an auto-generated choice list. This is a medications list that assigns valid RxNorm drug codes when choosing the medication name. With this validation in place, the data is standardized.

Relevance to UDSv4​

For Form A4 in UDSv4, several medication fields are validated for the RxNorm ontology. With the RxNorm ontology enabled, the data entry person can start typing the medication name and see a list of choices with keyword matches. The medications identified in the RxNorm database during data entry are valid responses for NACC uploads.

EDC-developed A4 Form (Participant Medications)​

Form A4 has 40 medication fields, configured as follows:

  • 15 text box fields validated for the RxNorm ontology
  • 15 drop-down list fields that offer the top 100 Drugs as choices (The raw choices are the RxNorm codes)
  • 10 integer-validated text box fields (Into which the RxNorm code can be manually entered)

Data Entry​

On an RxNorm-enabled field​

When performing data entry on an RxNorm-enabled field, the user will start typing the keyword of the medication and will then see a list of choices. Note that the user may need to scroll down to see all the choices:

Alt txt: Red box around a text box with the word 'advi' in it. To the right of the box is the instruction 'Type to begin searching.' Below the text box is a drop-down list of medications including the word 'Advi'. There is a red arrow pointing to the drop-down list.

On a drop-down list of medications​

Start typing the medication name in the box. As you begin typing the first few letters, the drop-down list will render a list of medications.

To manually type the medication information​

  1. Go to https://mor.nlm.nih.gov/RxNav/

    This is linked on the form page

  2. Start typing the medication name in the search box. As you begin typing the first few letters, the site will render a list of medications.

    Alt txt: Search box with the letters 'advi' entered. There is a red box around this portion of the search box. A red arrow points to the auto-suggested result, which is 'advil'.

    Once you select the medication, you will see an RxCUI number populate in square brackets. The number is what you enter as the drug code.

    Alt txt: Search box with Advil RxNorm drug code. The number portion in the red brackets has a red rectangle around it.

Additional Resources​

To see how an RxNorm-enabled field performs, click this link and start typing a medication name in the box to see a list of medications containing that medication name.

Troubleshooting & Caveats​

  1. The RxNorm ontology is only available on REDCap installations that have enabled the BioPortal API. If your REDCap installation does not have the service enabled, you can send the instructions at this link to your REDCap Administrator and see if they would be willing to implement it.
  2. NACC will accept all dosage variations of RxNorm medications.