The Canadian Clinical Drug Dataset is a drug terminology and coding system designed to allow the interchange of standardized drug and medical device information between diverse digital health systems. Some use cases include electronic prescribing, electronic medical records, medication reconciliation and analytics. It also provides for the classification and identification of defined groups of medications (called special groupings), such as narcotic and controlled drugs. It has the capacity to be used by knowledge-based vendors, clinicians, researchers, statistical users, government agencies, healthcare organisations and consumers.
The data source for the CCDD is the Drug Product Database (DPD) which contains information on drugs approved by Health Canada. However, the data is modeled differently following the CCDD Editorial Guidelines which take into consideration international terminology standards. For example, DPD uses the dosage form, “tablet (delayed-release)”, whereas CCDD uses the equivalent term “gastro-resistant tablet.” The Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set does not replace the Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD) but is published in addition to it.
The scope of health products included in CCDD is limited to those classified as human in DPD (veterinary, radiopharmaceutical and disinfectant products are out of scope). Some exclusions apply within the human class but are subject to periodic review: For a full list of exclusions, please see the Scope section in the CCDD Editorial Guidelines. In addition, a limited number of medical devices that are commonly prescribed and dispensed at a community pharmacy are included.
This data set was developed in collaboration with Canada Health Infoway and is also available on their Terminology Server at https://infocentral.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/tools/standards-tools/terminology-server (Free login required)