B.C. Medication Value Set
Publication date: March 20, 2026The B.C. Medication Value Set supports therapeutic moiety (TM), non-proprietary therapeutic product (NTP), and manufactured product (MP) which can be integrated with ordering systems and clinical decision support tools (e.g., drug/drug and drug/problem interaction checking, translate to morphine equivalent dose, calculate anticoagulation dose recommendations etc.) where the therapeutic moiety is coded to common international standards. This enables the dose of therapeutic moiety components to be calculated without ambiguity, and the route of administration to be known discretely when ordering or dispensing medications.
The structure of the B.C. Medication Value Set is based on the Health Canada Drug product Database (DPD), the Canadian Clinical Drug Dataset (CCDD), and the B.C. Pharmacare Downloadable Data File and brings together a broad set of drug-specific attributes while preserving full traceability to their underlying BC and DPD sources. To better support implementation, the DPD content has been refined, normalizing units and abbreviations, applying ISMP CA Tallman lettering, and improving overall brand name formatting. A generated virtual product name aligns CCDD NTP naming for all DINs, ensuring backward compatibility with cancelled or dormant products.
A complementary Health Canada–BC Extended Drug file is being provided for implementors requiring more granular clinical and regulatory attributes (e.g., CPP, hazardous flags, opioid-agonist flags, prescribed-alternative-flags, biosimilar flags, long-acting DEPOT drug indicators).
The combined files provide product specific information made available by the federal regulator of therapeutic drugs (Health Canada) for use in Canada, and links these three concepts (TM, NTP, and MP) to enhance content for incorporating drugs in Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Clinical Information Systems (CIS), and Pharmacy Management Systems (PMS).
Scope
The audience for this value set are:
- Electronic Medical Records Systems (EMR),
- Clinical Information Systems (CIS),
- Pharmacy Management Systems (PMS),
- Developers of IT solutions for B.C healthcare systems,
- Professional health care practitioners, and
- Organizations associated with the manufacture, distribution, and use of pharmaceutical preparations.
The scope of the medication value set provides a foundation for standardizing prescribing, while improving consistency and alignment with current regulatory and ePrescribing expectations (including FHIR based implementations).
Governance
The B.C. Medication Value Set is endorsed by ministry executives and developed in consultation with program areas, subject matter experts, and advisory reference groups that include representation at the provincial and pan-Canadian level.
Current Status
The current version of the B.C. Medication Value Set, and associated document materials are available for download.
For access to additional BC Pharmaceutical files (e.g., Health Canada Drug Name, BC Drug Ingredient mapping lists, BC long acting DEPOT drug) contact the Health Information Standards team at:
Maintenance
Significant analysis and review of documents and specifications were undertaken to make sure the standards developed would be applicable and attainable to the various stakeholder groups.
Wherever possible, content templates defined and reviewed by standards bodies were referenced, and appropriate constraints for the B.C. context applied.
The content of the ontology and value set may require post-production edits, additions and/or maintenance to address issues identified by technical validation. Additional adjustments may be required over time to reflect requirements in B.C. or to align with emerging pan-Canadian standards developments.
Download
- Download the B.C. Medication Ontology Guide v1.2 (PDF, 1.3MB).
- Download the B.C. Medication Data Dictionary v2.3 (PDF, 416KB).
- Download the B.C. Medication Value Set Excel File v4.6 (XLSX, 21.3MB).
- Download the B.C. Medication Value Set CSV Files v4.6(ZIP, 7.2MB).