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Drug or device
What is a drug?
General definition
- A drug is some medicine taken to reduce, cure or prevent some condition
- All generic and trade name drugs will be annotated
- Specific references to drugs used as nouns will be annotated
Classes of drugs
Where a class of drug is used to refer to a specific treatment, it will be annotated. For example,
- "responded to intravenous antibiotics"
- "antibiotics" will be annotated as a drug
- "Opioids were retitrated"
- "opioids" will be annotated
- "He has now completed his induction chemotherapy"
- "chemotherapy" will be annotated
Where a drug class is mentioned, and later individual drugs that are members of that class are also mentioned, you should be careful not to co-refer the class of drug with the individual drugs. See the guideline on Co-reference
"Treatment" and general words for drugs
The definite use of general words that clearly co-refer back to an earlier mentioned drug, will be annotated and co-referred.
- For example,
- "We decided to try again with Tamoxifen. She is unlikely to respond to the treatment."
- "Treatment" will be marked as a drug and co-referred to tamoxifen.
What is not a drug?
Drugs in headings
General references to "drugs", e.g. in headings, will not be annotated. For example, in:
- "Drugs on discharge:"
- The word "drugs" will not be annotated
Drugs as modifiers of conditions
Where a drug or class of drug is used as a modifier, it will not be annotated. For example,
- "There was a query about whether he had become opioid toxic"
- "opioid" will not be annotated (opiate toxicity, is however, a valid condition entity)
Dosage and route
It is not neccesary to annotate either the dosage or the route of administration: just the drug itself.
Body substances
The patients's own body substances should not be annotated as drugs or devices.
- For example,
- "Masson Fontana stain for melanin is negative"
- "melanin" should not be annotated as a drug.
- There is no need to annotate it.
Chemotherapy
The word "chemotherapy"
Where the word "chemotherapy" is used to refer to a specific treatment using some broad class of drugs, it will be annotated. For example,
- "She is starting her induction chemotherapy on the LSA2L2 regime"
- "chemotherapy" will be annotated as a drug
Individual chemotherapy drugs
Where a specific drug is mentioned as part of chemotherapy, it should be annotated. For example,
- "He received 400mg carboplatin on chemotherapy"
- "carboplatin" should be annotated as a Drug.
Protocol names
Please do not annotate specific chemotherapy trial names and protocols as drugs: we do not want to collect them.
- For example,
- "She is starting her induction chemotherapy on the LSA2L2 regime"
- "LSA2L2" will not be annotated as a drug
- For example,
- "We discussed the REAL trial which compares ECF and MCF chemotherapy"
- "REAL", "ECF", and "MCF" will not be annotated as drugs.
Co-reference
Co-reference that requires a knowledge of pharmaceuticals will be annotated. For example, in:
- "I recommended he used a common NSAID, such as Ibuprofen"
- NSAID and Ibuprofen will be marked as separate entities, and co-refered.
Devices
A device is some manufactured object or substance used in the treatment or investigation of a patient. For example,
- suture material
- drains
- prostheses
- tubes
Medical devices will be annotated as drugs / devices.
- For example,
- "closed with chromic catgut"
- "chromic catgut" will be marked as a drug
- "Robinson drain to pelvis"
- "Robinson drain" will be marked as a drug