Wolters Kluwer Health Releases User-Friendly Version Of RxNorm

Program Integrates National Library of Medicine’s Drug Concept Identifier with Existing WKHealth Concepts

(CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. Feb. 27, 2006) - Wolters Kluwer Health (WKHealth), the leading drug and health information provider, today announced the release of its RxNorm Cross Reference Files, a more user-friendly version of the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) standardized nomenclature for clinical drugs. The new data provides a subset of the fields available in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus for RxNorm and maps them to existing WKHealth concepts.

RxNorm has been identified to support the electronic prescribing (eRx) initiatives included in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. By providing NLM’s RxNorm standard drug identifier, it enables healthcare providers to send messages between systems and map drug concepts between proprietary data sets at a level other than the National Drug Code (NDC).

"The potential uses for RxNorm are tremendous" said Alan Hess, Vice President and General Manager of Wolters Kluwer Health’s Clinical Solutions business unit. "The initial users include eRx vendors, pharmacy chains and pharmacy vendors participating in eRx pilot projects. But eventually we see RxNorm as a way to share drug concepts for formularies between pharmacy benefit managers and electronic medical records"

The RxNorm subset Wolters Kluwer Health offers provides several enhancements over the NLM’s program. Specifically:

* While the NLM’s RxNorm is currently updated quarterly or monthly, WKHealth’s product is updated weekly and monthly.
* While NLM’s UMLS provides mapping to WKHealth’s generic drug concepts, WKHealth’s RxNorm Cross Reference Files additionally include mapping to WKHealth’s drug concepts of Drug Descriptor ID and Drug Name ID. WKHealth’s RxNorm Cross Reference Files include a "variance" flag to identify nuances with mappings between RxNorm and WKHealth’s drug concepts.

About Wolters Kluwer Health
Wolters Kluwer Health (Conshohocken, PA) is a leading provider of information for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. Major brands include traditional publishers of medical and drug reference tools and textbooks, such as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Facts & Comparisons; electronic information providers, such as Ovid Technologies, Medi-Span and ProVation Medical; and pharmaceutical information providers Adis International and Source®.

Wolters Kluwer is a leading multinational publisher and information services company. The company’s core markets are spread across the health, corporate services, finance, tax, accounting, law, regulatory and education sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2004) of EUR 3.3 billion, employs approximately 18,400 people worldwide and maintains operations across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its depositary receipts of shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.

Contact Information

Connie Hofmann

Director, Corporate Communications

Wolters Kluwer Health

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