Drugs and Prescription Vocabularies
Two separate things feed the prescription screen:
- the drug list — the only place a drug name can come from, since that field does not accept free typing;
- the suggestion lists — type, strength, dose, duration and advice, which suggest but do not restrict.
Build both once and prescribing becomes a few keystrokes.
Where to Find It
Click an address to open that screen on your own clinic. The first click asks which clinic you are, then remembers it. Addresses holding a {id} or {token} need a specific record, so they are shown but not linked.
| Screen | Address |
|---|---|
| All drugs | /all-drug |
| New drug | /new-drug |
| Edit drug | /edit-drug/{id} |
| Drug catalogue | /drug-catalog |
| One catalogue drug | /drug-catalog/{id} |
| The five suggestion lists (tabs) | /prescription-setting |
| Import drugs from CSV | /import/drugs |
| Drug report | /drug-report/drug={id}/start={start}/end={end} |
The Drug List
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Drug Name * | The trade name. Must be unique — this is what appears in the prescription dropdown |
| Drug Generic | The scientific name. Optional when adding, required once you edit the drug again |
| Arabic name | Optional. Filled in for you when the drug is copied from the catalogue. The drug list's search matches it too |
| Company | Optional — the manufacturer |
| Price (EGP) | Optional — the public price. A drug copied from the catalogue keeps the price the catalogue had on the day you copied it; it does not follow later price changes |
| Short Note | Optional — dosage reminders, cautions, anything the prescriber should see |
| Active | Edit screen only. An inactive drug stays on existing prescriptions but is no longer offered for new ones |
New drugs are active from the start.
TIP
Adding a drug mid-prescription: the + button next to the drug field (or Ctrl+D) opens a two-field dialog — trade name and generic name. The drug is created, added to the dropdown and selected, without losing what you have typed so far.
Dosing by weight
The same form carries a Dosing by weight card. Fill it in and the drug becomes available to the dose calculator — on the prescription form's drug row and in a child's record alike.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| mg/kg from — to | The range per dose, not per day. Fill only "from" for a single figure |
| Doses per day | Required as soon as a range is entered — the daily total is the dose times this |
| Maximum single dose / maximum daily | The pack's ceilings. When one is reached the answer says so rather than quietly showing the cap |
| Minimum age / minimum weight | Below either, the calculator refuses in words and names which |
| Strength (mg per ml) | The bottle's own strength, both boxes or neither — this is what turns mg into millilitres |
Leave the card empty for a drug that is not dosed by weight — a cream, an inhaler, insulin in units, anything titrated. It is simply not offered by the calculator, and is prescribed normally.
An inactive drug is never offered, however complete its numbers. The form says so while you are filling them in, and the calculator counts the drugs in that state, because otherwise the range is entered and the calculator still looks empty.
A new clinic starts with an empty drug list. Take the drugs you prescribe from the drug catalogue, straight from the prescription if you like, then fill in this card for the ones you dose by weight. The numbers belong to the prescriber: have a doctor enter or check them before your clinic works from them.
The list
Drug → All Drug shows each drug with its generic name, how many prescriptions have used it, and an active/inactive pill. Header counters show how many are registered and how many active.
A drug copied from the catalogue carries a From the catalogue tag, with its Arabic name under the trade name.
Search matches trade name, Arabic name or generic name. Quick chips filter All, Active, Inactive. Sort by date or name.
A drug that appears on any prescription or template cannot be deleted. Switch it inactive instead — history stays intact and it stops being offered.
TIP
Importing a formulary from a spreadsheet? Use the CSV import for drugs instead of typing them in. Download the sample file, match your columns, upload, and the import runs in the background.
The drug catalogue
Instead of typing drugs in one by one, take them from the catalogue: about 26,000 drugs on the Egyptian market, each with its trade name in English and Arabic, generic name, company and price.
On Drug → All Drug, click Drug catalogue.
- Search by trade name, Arabic name or generic name. Every word you type has to appear, so
augmentin 625narrows to the 625 mg packs. Arabic spelling differences do not matter: أ / إ / ا, ة / ه and ى / ي all match each other. - View opens the drug's own page with everything the catalogue knows about it.
- Copy opens the add-drug form already filled in from the catalogue: name, generic name, Arabic name, company and price. Add a note or the dosing numbers if you like, then Submit to add it to your list. A drug already in your list opens as itself instead, so it is never added twice.
- A drug already in your list shows In your list, and its button opens it for editing instead.
Once copied, the drug is yours: edit its name, note, price or dosing numbers as you would any drug you added by hand. When the catalogue is updated later, your copy stays as it is.
If you had already typed a drug in by hand under exactly the same trade name, copying it from the catalogue does not create a second one. Your drug is linked to the catalogue and its blank fields are filled in, but nothing you wrote is changed.
The catalogue loads once on each device, which takes a few seconds the first time. After that, search answers as you type.
From the prescription itself
You do not have to visit the catalogue first. On a prescription or a template, type at least two letters in the Drug Name field: your own drugs come first, and under them, headed From the drug catalogue, the catalogue's matches with their Arabic name, generic name and price. Pick one and it is added to your drug list at that moment, before the prescription is saved, then put on the line like any of your drugs.
Anyone who may write a prescription or a template can pick from the catalogue this way, even without access to the drug list screen.
The most used drugs come first
Open the Drug Name field without typing and your drugs are listed with the most recently used at the top. A drug moves to the top when it is put on a prescription or a template, copied from the catalogue, added from the prescription, or opened for editing. Drugs never used yet follow alphabetically.
On the drug list, the Recently used first sort shows the same order.
The Suggestion Lists
All five live under Prescription → Prescription Settings, one tab each. Every tab works identically: a button to add, a one-field dialog, and a table where each value can be edited, switched active/inactive, or deleted.
| Tab | Fills this field while prescribing | Typical values |
|---|---|---|
| Drug Types | Type | Tablet, Capsule, Syrup, Injection, Cream |
| Drug Strength | Strength | 250 mg, 500 mg, 5 mg/ml |
| Drug Dose | Dose | 1×1, 1×3, half a spoon |
| Drug Duration | Duration | 5 days, 1 week, 1 month |
| Drug Advice | Advice on a single drug | After meals, Before sleep, With water |
| Prescription Advice | The general advice block on templates | Rest for three days, Drink 2 L of water |
Rules that apply to all of them: each value must be unique inside its own list, and only active values are suggested.
They suggest, they do not restrict
The prescriber can type anything into type, strength, dose, duration and advice — a value that is not on the list is saved exactly as typed, and it does not get added to the list. So the lists stay curated instead of filling up with one-off typos.
The flip side: deleting a value from a list changes nothing on prescriptions already written, because the text was copied onto them at the time. Deletion only removes it from future suggestions.
TIP
Keep these lists short. They are dropdowns that open on focus, so twelve well-chosen doses are faster to use than sixty.
The Drug Report
Reports → Operational Reports → Drug Report answers "what are we prescribing, and how often?"
Pick All Drug or a single drug, set a start and end date, then Submit:
- All Drug — a bar chart comparing how often each drug was prescribed in the window.
- A single drug — a chart by month, then one table per month; each row is one prescription, with a View on Prescription link that opens the printed sheet.
Each row counts one appearance on one prescription, so a drug prescribed twice to the same patient counts twice. The end date is inclusive.