Data Fusion to Convert Drug Consumption Quantities into Defined Daily Doses

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Health Informatics
• Public Health

Background:

• Antibiotic misuse is prevalent, contravening national guidelines.
• Accurate drug consumption quantification is challenging due to heterogeneous units.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) established the defined daily dose (DDD) to standardize measurement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To automate the calculation of drug consumption in DDD.
• To address challenges in quantifying heterogeneous drug data.
• To improve the accuracy of antibiotic consumption analysis.

Main Methods:

• Data fusion techniques were employed to integrate information.
• Data were sourced from a French public database and the WHO website.
• An existing manual methodology for DDD calculation was automated.

Main Results:

• The automated approach demonstrated efficiency in calculating drug consumption.
• Inconsistencies within the data were identified as a limitation.
• A solution was developed to mitigate identified data inconsistencies.

Conclusions:

• Automated DDD calculation using data fusion is an effective method for analyzing drug consumption.
• Addressing data inconsistencies is crucial for reliable antibiotic consumption monitoring.
• The developed approach can aid in better understanding and managing antibiotic usage.