Vocab. RxNorm

RxNorm

RxNorm is US-specific terminology for normalizing drug names and supporting interoperability between health systems.

RxNorm contains the names of prescription and many over-the-counter drugs available in the United States. Non-therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, bulk powders, contrast media, food, dietary supplements, medical devices, and homeopathy are out-of-scope for RxNorm.

Sources

RxNorm Vocabulary is created and supported by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and distributed within the scope of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) source.

Transformation

The processing script that follows these instructions can be found here.

Concept Name and Concept Code

Concept codes are leveraged from the code field of the source rxnconso table. Concept names are assigned according to the str field of the source rxnconso table.

Standard Concepts

Concepts that belong to the Branded Dose Group, Clinical Dose Group, and Dose Form Group concept classes are Classification concepts.

Concepts that belong to the Precise Ingredient, Multiple Ingredients, Dose Form, and Brand Name concept classes are non-Standard.

Other valid RxNorm concepts are Standard.

Domains

All RxNorm concepts belong to the Drug domain.

Concept Classes

RxNorm forms the structure and the core content of the Drug domain. It includes the following concept classes:

Concept Class	Composed of
Quantified Branded Drug	Ingredients, their strength, form, brand name, size
Quantified Clinical Drug	Ingredients, their strength, form, size
Branded Pack	Branded Drugs, their number (box size is optional)
Clinical Pack	Clinical Drugs, their number (box size is optional)
Branded Drug	Ingredients, their strength, form, brand name
Clinical Drug	Ingredient, their strength, form
Branded Drug Form	Ingredient, form, brand name
Clinical Drug Form	Ingredient, form
Branded Drug Component	Ingredient, strength, brand name
Clinical Drug Component	Ingredient, strength
Branded Dose Group	Brand name, form
Clinical Dose Group	Ingredient, form
Dose Form Group	Form
Dose Form	Form
Brand Name	Brand name
Ingredient	Ingredient
Multiple Ingredients	Ingredient
Precise Ingredient	Ingredient

Concept Relationships

Hierarchy

The hierarchy of the RxNorm is created using various types of relationships:

Internal RxNorm relationships between Drug Products or their derivatives :

Concept Class 1	Concept Class 2	Relationship ID
Brand Name	Branded Drug	Brand name of
Brand Name	Branded Drug Comp	Brand name of
Brand Name	Branded Drug Form	Brand name of
Brand Name	Ingredient	Brand name of
Brand Name	Quant Branded Drug	Brand name of
Brand Name	Marketed Product	Brand name of
Branded Drug	Brand Name	RxNorm has ing
Branded Drug	Branded Drug Comp	Consists of
Branded Drug	Branded Drug Form	RxNorm is a
Branded Drug	Branded Pack	Contained in
Branded Drug	Clinical Drug	Tradename of
Branded Drug	Clinical Drug Comp	Consists of
Branded Drug	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Branded Drug	Quant Branded Drug	Has quantified form
Branded Drug	Quant Clinical Drug	Tradename of
Branded Drug	Marketed Product	Has marketed form
Branded Drug Comp	Brand Name	RxNorm has ing
Branded Drug Comp	Branded Drug	Constitutes
Branded Drug Comp	Clinical Drug Comp	Tradename of
Branded Drug Comp	Quant Branded Drug	Constitutes
Branded Drug Form	Brand Name	RxNorm has ing
Branded Drug Form	Branded Drug	RxNorm inverse is a
Branded Drug Form	Clinical Drug Form	Tradename of
Branded Drug Form	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Branded Drug Form	Quant Branded Drug	RxNorm inverse is a
Branded Pack	Branded Drug	Contains
Branded Pack	Clinical Drug	Contains
Branded Pack	Clinical Pack	Tradename of
Branded Pack	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Branded Pack	Quant Branded Drug	Contains
Branded Pack	Quant Clinical Drug	Contains
Branded Pack	Marketed Product	Has marketed form
Clinical Drug	Branded Drug	Has tradename
Clinical Drug	Branded Pack	Contained in
Clinical Drug	Clinical Drug Comp	Consists of
Clinical Drug	Clinical Drug Form	RxNorm is a
Clinical Drug	Clinical Pack	Contained in
Clinical Drug	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Clinical Drug	Quant Branded Drug	Has tradename
Clinical Drug	Quant Clinical Drug	Has quantified form
Clinical Drug	Marketed Product	Has marketed form
Clinical Drug	Marketed Product	Contained in
Clinical Drug Comp	Branded Drug	Constitutes
Clinical Drug Comp	Branded Drug Comp	Has tradename
Clinical Drug Comp	Clinical Drug	Constitutes
Clinical Drug Comp	Ingredient	Has precise ing
Clinical Drug Comp	Ingredient	RxNorm has ing
Clinical Drug Comp	Quant Branded Drug	Constitutes
Clinical Drug Comp	Quant Clinical Drug	Constitutes
Clinical Drug Form	Branded Drug Form	Has tradename
Clinical Drug Form	Clinical Drug	RxNorm inverse is a
Clinical Drug Form	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Clinical Drug Form	Ingredient	RxNorm has ing
Clinical Drug Form	Quant Clinical Drug	RxNorm inverse is a
Clinical Pack	Branded Pack	Has tradename
Clinical Pack	Clinical Drug	Contains
Clinical Pack	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Clinical Pack	Quant Clinical Drug	Contains
Clinical Pack	Marketed Product	Has quantified form
Dose Form	Branded Drug	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Branded Drug Form	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Branded Pack	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Clinical Drug	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Clinical Drug Form	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Clinical Pack	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Quant Branded Drug	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Quant Clinical Drug	RxNorm dose form of
Dose Form	Marketed Product	RxNorm dose form of
Ingredient	Brand Name	Has brand name
Ingredient	Clinical Drug Comp	RxNorm ing of
Ingredient	Clinical Drug Form	RxNorm ing of
Marketed Product	Brand Name	Has brand name
Marketed Product	Branded Drug	Marketed form of
Marketed Product	Branded Pack	Marketed form of
Marketed Product	Clinical Drug	Marketed form of
Marketed Product	Clinical Drug	Contains
Marketed Product	Clinical Pack	Marketed form of
Marketed Product	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Marketed Product	Quant Branded Drug	Marketed form of
Marketed Product	Quant Clinical Drug	Contains
Marketed Product	Quant Clinical Drug	Marketed form of
Quant Branded Drug	Brand Name	RxNorm has ing
Quant Branded Drug	Branded Drug	Quantified form of
Quant Branded Drug	Branded Drug Comp	Consists of
Quant Branded Drug	Branded Drug Form	RxNorm is a
Quant Branded Drug	Branded Pack	Contained in
Quant Branded Drug	Clinical Drug	Tradename of
Quant Branded Drug	Clinical Drug Comp	Consists of
Quant Branded Drug	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Quant Branded Drug	Quant Clinical Drug	Tradename of
Quant Branded Drug	Marketed Product	Has marketed form
Quant Clinical Drug	Branded Drug	Has tradename
Quant Clinical Drug	Branded Pack	Contained in
Quant Clinical Drug	Clinical Drug	Quantified form of
Quant Clinical Drug	Clinical Drug Comp	Consists of
Quant Clinical Drug	Clinical Drug Form	RxNorm is a
Quant Clinical Drug	Clinical Pack	Contained in
Quant Clinical Drug	Dose Form	RxNorm has dose form
Quant Clinical Drug	Quant Branded Drug	Has tradename
Quant Clinical Drug	Marketed Product	Has marketed form
Quant Clinical Drug	Marketed Product	Contained in

• Equivalence relationships between RxNorm and other Drug vocabularies (‘RxNorm - CVX’, ‘RxNorm - DOI’, ‘RxNorm - ETC’, ‘RxNorm - SPL’, ‘NDFRT - RxNorm name’)
• Relationships from RxNorm and HemOnc therapeutic regimens

Attribute relationships

• Attribute relationships to valid non-standard concepts, like Brand Names and Dose forms.
• Equivalence relationships between RxNorm and other vocabularies are defined as 'Source - RxNorm eq'.

The full list of relationships can be found in the concept_relationship table.