ATC codes in mSupply(Mar 20, 2007)

What are ATCs and DDDs?

“ATC” stands for “Anatomical, Therapeutic, Chemical” and is a way of classifying chemical entities.

“DDD” stands for “Defined daily dose: and provides a way to compare the utilization of different drugs in a meaningful way. Think of it this way- if a health care provider has used 10,000 doxycycline 100mg tabs and 20,000 amoxycillin 250mg tabs, which drug has had the most use?

By units: the amoxycillin

When taking into account the DDD: the doxycycline.

Current status of ATC/DDD reporting in mSupply

We are excited to announce that thanks to the help of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Drug Statistics and Methodology, we are now able to offer a starting drugs file with the codes. We also plan to keep an up-to-date list of ATCs & DDDs for essential drugs on this web site. (thanks Marit ;-) )

Reporting using ATC DDD codes

mSupply is designed to have the ATC code entered in the “category” for each item. mSupply is able to report on supply transactions giving a breakdown by the different “levels” of an ATC code

The “DDD factor” field is designed to store the number of dose units of the item in a DDD. For example, if an item is 250mg capsules, and the DDD is 1000mg, the DDD factor for this item is 4. When we design a report, we need to divide the quantity used of this item by the DDD factor to calculate the number of DDDs supplied.

Note that “DDD” values in mSupply should not be entered in the “DDD factor” field. If you want to record the “DDD” for an item, use one of the custom fields availabel. (or store as a note attached to the item).

When you produce a report, you just have to fill in some very simple criteria:

Therefore, you can easily generate reports such as:

• A level one ATC summary for all items supplied to “hospital x” during 1998.
• A level two summary for all items in ATC category “J” supplied to customers who are marked as category “H” (for hospital) during March 1999.
• A level three summary for all essential drugs supplied to all customers from 1st July 1998 to 31st December 1998.
• The report produced gives the “DDDs supplied” for each category at the level requested, and includes totals for higher levels as well.

The report may be printed, but may also be sent to a file for import into another application.

Email info@msupply.org.nz for more information.