Series of national standards for traditional Chinese medicine coding officially released in Beijing
Recently, the Standardization Administration and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly held a press conference in Beijing, releasing 3 national standards for traditional Chinese medicine, including the "Coding Rules and Codes for Traditional Chinese Medicine Formulas", "Coding Rules and Codes for Traditional Chinese Medicine", and "Coding and Representation of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Supply Chain Management", marking that a unified coding system for traditional Chinese medicines, traditional Chinese medicine formulas, and the traditional Chinese medicine supply chain will be implemented nationwide. These three standards will take effect on December 1.
The "Coding Rules and Codes for Traditional Chinese Medicine Formulas" specifies the classification and code structure of traditional Chinese medicine formulas, and classifies and codes 1089 traditional Chinese medicine formulas. It applies to clinical medication, scientific research and teaching, statistics, and supervision and management of traditional Chinese medicine formulas, as well as information processing, information exchange, and interconnection for work such as traditional Chinese medicine formulas, traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions, electronic prescriptions, electronic medical records, and traditional Chinese medicine medical records.
The "Coding Rules and Codes for Traditional Chinese Medicine" specifies the coding rules for traditional Chinese medicine. It applies to the classification and coding of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, herbal medicines, traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces, traditional Chinese medicine formula granules, traditional Chinese medicine ultrafine decoction pieces, and traditional Chinese medicine ultrafine formula granules. It can also be used for information processing, information exchange, and interconnection in the production and operation, procurement, storage, maintenance, scientific research and teaching, supervision and management, traditional Chinese medicine supply chain (logistics), and statistics of traditional Chinese medicine.
The "Coding and Representation of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Supply Chain Management" specifies the coding and representation of product identification content information such as trade items, place of origin, unit, grade, production date, batch number, serial number, and quantity of traditional Chinese medicine products. It applies to information processing in traditional Chinese medicine supply chain management and supervision and management processes, as well as the exchange, processing, and interconnection of traditional Chinese medicine logistics, capital flow, and information flow. The purpose is to build a fair, just, and transparent platform for trade.
This series of standards focuses on frontier issues and key areas in the inheritance, innovation, and development of traditional Chinese medicine, clarifies strategic measures and path methods for the inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine, so as to accelerate the process of standardization, informatization, and normalization of traditional Chinese medicine and cultivate and build a fair, just, and transparent traditional Chinese medicine market. In particular, in terms of deepening the reform of the pharmaceutical and healthcare system, it is conducive to promoting the construction of a guarantee system in the field of traditional Chinese medicine circulation, improving the traditional Chinese medicine quality certification system and identification system, establishing and perfecting China's traditional Chinese medicine quality traceability system, forming a reverse-tracing mechanism for traditional Chinese medicine quality, effectively supervising and managing the traditional Chinese medicine market, and ensuring people's medication safety.
The release and implementation of the three standards will promote the realization nationwide of “one name, one formula, one substance, one code” for traditional Chinese medicine formulas, traditional Chinese medicine names, varieties, and their specifications, and “governing medicines by formulas”, which can effectively avoid the confusing phenomena of “same formula with different names”, “different formulas with the same name”, “same substance with different names”, and “different substances with the same name”, prevent traditional Chinese medicinal materials and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces from being passed off as genuine or inferior products from being passed off as superior ones, and purify a traditional Chinese medicine market where the fake is passed off as genuine. At the same time, it will also have milestone significance for realizing the leapfrog development of China's traditional Chinese medicine cause, better serving the people's health and well-being, enabling traditional Chinese medicine to better participate in China's “Belt and Road” construction, promoting Internet Plus traditional Chinese medicine services, and enhancing the internationalization brand of traditional Chinese medicine.