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DrugUtilisation: An R Package to Support Drug Utilisation Research Using the OMOP Common Data Model
Yuchen Guo1, Edward Burn1, Annika M Jödicke1
1Pharmaco- and Device Epidemiology Group, Health Data Sciences, Botnar Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety
|July 14, 2026
Summary
This study introduces DrugUtilisation, an R package for analyzing drug utilization in real-world data. It simplifies common analyses, enabling faster insights into medication use across diverse patient populations.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacovigilance
- Health Informatics
- Computational Epidemiology
Background:
- Drug utilization studies are crucial for understanding medication safety and effectiveness.
- Standardized data formats like the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM) are essential for multi-database research.
- Existing tools may lack comprehensive functionalities for complex drug utilization analyses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and describe DrugUtilisation, an open-source R package.
- To facilitate drug utilization studies using OMOP CDM-mapped data.
- To provide a foundation for both common and bespoke drug utilization analyses.
Main Methods:
- Developed an R package, DrugUtilisation, with core functionalities for cohort creation, indication summarization, dose/duration analysis, and adherence assessment.
- Integrated the package with DARWIN EU initiative workflows for study-specific needs.
- Demonstrated the package's utility by analyzing simvastatin use in three European real-world databases.
Main Results:
- The DrugUtilisation package enables efficient analysis of drug use patterns.
- Applied functions to real-world data, generating cohort counts, indication summaries, and dose/duration metrics.
- Ensured consistency and minimized errors through comprehensive unit tests and standardized output.
Conclusions:
- The DrugUtilisation software accelerates common drug utilization analyses.
- Provides a flexible platform for researchers to conduct detailed, study-specific investigations.
- Enhances the capability for real-world evidence generation in pharmacovigilance.
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