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type: resourceresource: MedicinalProductDefinition

MedicinalProductDefinition

Introduction

Scope and Usage

For an overview of this resource and others in the Medication Definition domain, also see the module page

The MedicinalProductDefinition resource covers the detailed defining data of medicinal products, to a level beyond what is typically needed for day to day prescribing, but that is commonly required by manufacturers and regulators, and also for use in drug catalogs and pharmacopoeias. (For direct patient care when prescribing the correct resource is Medication).

This product resource is associated with others that describe the packaging, the actual medication in its manufactured form (e.g. the tablet itself), its ingredients, and the substances within. These products are generally regulated by national or regional bodies or agencies. See note below about the RegulatedAuthorization resource.

The administrable (or "pharmaceutical") product - which differs in that it is now "mixed" from its components (if necessary) and is ready for use - is covered by the AdministrableProductDefinition resource.

This MedicinalProductDefinition resource is the one that represents the product as a whole, even though some parts of the full data model are in the other resources of this module. The full product is actually represented by several resources working together - it can be thought of as one large model.

Each part can be used individually to represent some aspects of the full product. But the product as a whole, should be a MedicinalProductDefinition. (As an example, if just a representation of the individual tablet of a product is needed, just the ManufacturedItemDefinition resource can be used. But that doesn't make the tablet into a "product" - it is still just the physical manifestation of an overall drug product. There is logically a MedicinalProductDefinition there too, even if it is not being used or transmitted at this time.)

The MedicinalProductDefinition resource acts as a "header", representing the product itself, and is the unit that is generally submitted for regulation (and is approved for sale), or that appears in a drug catalog or pharmacopoeia.

A list of drug definitions would be list of MedicinalProductDefinitions, but each would have a series of associated packs and manufactured items (and ingredients etc.), with references to the appropriate resources.

The "product level" at the top has features such as names and identifiers, classifications, legal status, and usage characteristics (indications, contra-indications) since they are common to all package types available for this product, the tablets (or powders etc.) that physically are the medication, as well as the form of the drug that is eventually given to the patient.

A product can have multiple pack types - which may come and go over time - and the existence of differing package options (different amounts of the drug, or bottle vs. packet) is one of the reasons to have an overarching product record that collates them all.

A product is normally limited to a single formulation (set of ingredients) and physical form and strength. These defining characteristics are some of the key features that marketing approvals and approved usage indications are based on. A change of any of these would usually mean a different product - a different MedicinalProductDefinition instance - and a different approval being needed.

Authorizations

A key aspect of a regulated medicinal product is the authorization (marketing authorization). This is not directly carried on the product resource, but instead a RegulatedAuthorization resource is created which points back to this resource.

Contained Resources

Due to the amount of information, cardinalities, and update granularity necessary for some applications, the full product model is split over several resources.

If you need just a coded "package type" list for your product you can use MedicinalProductDefinition.packagedMedicinalProduct. But full package information goes in an instance of PackagedProductDefinition resource (linked back to the MedicinalProductDefinition using PackagedProductDefinition.productFor).

There are occasions where an identified package is not necessary, and yet one or more parts of the PackagedProductDefinition resource are needed. In this case it may be appropriate to use a contained PackagedProductDefinition resource. Similarly if the Ingredient resource is too much, but a link to a substance as component part of a product is needed, consider a contained Ingredient, that links straight to a SubstanceDefinition.

This example demonstrates both of these cases.

StructureDefinition

Elements (Simplified)

Mappings

Operations

Full Operations

Resource Packs

list-MedicinalProductDefinition-packs.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<List xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir">
  <id value="MedicinalProductDefinition-packs"/>
  <status value="current"/>
  <mode value="working"/>
</List>

Search Parameters

Full Search Parameters

Examples

Full Examples

Mapping Exceptions

medicinalproductdefinition-fivews-mapping-exceptions.xml

Unmapped Elements