I sent a communication to the center below. Below my email is the response I received. I would love feedback. While they didn't quite understand the intent of the email, the center did take notice and wrote back asking for clarification. I find this to be a very good sign as there is now a chance to have an open dialogue with the one group that seems as though they are in a position to make changes.
Email to the pharmacy at the Division of Drug Information at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:
Do you have anything to do with what UOM we are allowed to designate for medications. For instance, amoxicillin tablets has an option for TABLETS. Or Doxycycline capsules has an option for CAPSULES. Unfortunately, many of the common Units of Measure are no longer a choice in our Electronic Medical Record. Medications such as an inhaler has no option listed for MDI (metered dose inhaler) or simply inhaler. Albuterol 0.083% comes in boxes. That is its UOIM. BOXES used to be one of the choices for UOM.
So few are left and very few of those that are specific to the medications we normally use it forces physicians to select UNSPECIFIED for the medication and write the actual UOM in the comment section. This defeats the purpose of having concise and specific UOMs that cover nearly 95% of the medications used.
Reply:
Dear Bert,
Thank you for writing to the Division of Drug Information in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
To better assist you, please clarify if you are referring to the dosage form/unit of measure of drug products designated in the pharmacy's computer system or are you referring to the dosage form that's provided in the drug product labeling.
Best regards,
TNC
Pharmacist
Division of Drug Information
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Tel: 855-543-DRUG (855-543-3784)
druginfo@fda.hhs.gov
_______________________________________________________________
When I reply to them to clarify, it may be a good idea to suggest or recommend commonly use UOMs that could be considered to be added back to the list. Would it be helpful for everyone to list some of these such as:
Boxes
Inhalers
MDIs
Chewables
etc.
Last edited by Bert; 11/14/2022 7:56 PM.
