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Drugref 2 Prescribing Database

UpdatedDecember 20, 2024
By Peter Hutten-CzapskiPeter Hutten-Czapski

Drugref is OSCAR’s drug database service.

The drug list is abstracted from Health Canada’s Drug Product Database on an “as is” basis.  While the OSCAR Deb updates drugref quarterly,  you can update anytime.

Document Version History

  • v1.0 – Initial instructions – Mar 1, 2023
  • v1.1 – Instructions including suggestions for scripting updates – Dec 14, 2024

Documentation Copyright © 2023-2024 by Peter Hutten-Czapski MD under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Unported License

Updating Drugref

Simply navigate to Administration > Integration > Update Drugref

Click on the “Update Drugref” button and wait up to an hour.  You will be able to renew existing drugs during this period.  At some point you will temporarily loose the ability to Rx new ones from the drop down search.

TIPS

  1. Health Canada’s Drug Product Database is updated at the beginning of each month (although not always the first of the month), more frequent updates are not useful.
  2. Drugref will handle most drug safety tweaks however the full set can be invoked using mysql -uroot -p****** drugref < /usr/share/oscar-emr/tallMANdrugref.sql
  3. Drugref can be directly updated with a script
  4. If Drugref Update fails you will loose all the data that allows you to make a new Rx, you will only be able to renew.  You can recover with mysql -uroot -p****** drugref < /usr/share/oscar-emr/drugref.sql

SCRIPT

For a cronjob you can  create an executable drugrefUpdate.cron in the usual fashion

#!/bin/bash
# 
# drugrefUpdate.cron
# a script designed to be triggered by a monthly cron job to update drugref
# with the current months Health Canada DPD release

if [ -f /usr/share/tomcat9/bin/version.sh ] ; then
        TOMCAT=tomcat9
    else
    if [ -f /usr/share/tomcat8/bin/version.sh ] ; then
        TOMCAT=tomcat8
        else
        if [ -f /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/version.sh ] ; then
            TOMCAT=tomcat7
        fi
    fi
fi
CATALINA_HOME=/usr/share/${TOMCAT}
PROPFILE=$CATALINA_HOME/oscar.properties
db_password="${db_password:-$(sed '/^\#/d' $PROPFILE | grep 'db_password' | tail -n 1 | cut -d "=" -f2- | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*//;s/[[:space:]]*$//')}" 
wget --no-check-certificate https://localhost:8443/drugref/Update.jsp && mysql -uroot -p${db_password} drugref < /usr/share/oscar-emr/tallMANdrugref.sql

 

Manual Updates

Drugref can be directly updated with your browser invoking https://localhost:8443/drugref/Update.jsp. You will have to wait until drugref is updated (up to an hour) before the page will load, but when it does it will show you the current state of your updated database

Update Drugref Database!
Table Name Number of Rows
CdTherapeuticClass 42649
CdPackaging 39146
CdDrugProduct 38561
CdSchedule 43711
LinkGenericBrand 38561
CdForm 47588
CdPharmaceuticalStd 22133
CdDrugSearch 78810
CdRoute 48595
CdActiveIngredients 96261
CdInactiveProducts 65609
Interactions 3872
CdCompanies 43433
CdDrugStatus 124054
CdVeterinarySpecies 4875

Time spent on importing data: 34 minutes

Time spent on new generic import: 3 minutes

Added Descriptor and Strength

Number of drug names being added descriptor: 1699

Number of drug names being added strength: 17662

 

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