The National Medicinal Product Catalogue (NMPC) is a national collection of medicines formularies designed to uniquely & unambiguously code and describe all commonly prescribed and dispensed medicines in Ireland. It can be implemented in clinical information systems (CIS) and administration systems to support electronic medication management activities including, but not limited to the eight core steps of medicines management and the three ancillary steps that occur during the patient journey (transfer of information, materials management/supply chain link, clinical audit and research). 

As a provider of medicines information to clinical systems used by health care professionals in both private and public healthcare it will be a driver of evidence-based medicine. 

Figure 1: The NMPC will underpin all eight steps of medicines management and also the three ancillary steps (materials management, clinical audit, and transfer of information) 

The NMPC will deliver national (and cross border) medicines interoperability through the development of the NMPC database and toolset, in conjunction with the establishment of a national centre of excellence. Currently, there are multiple catalogues and drug files used in eHealth and administrative systems in Irish healthcare. The NMPC will allow diverse clinical and administrative systems to accurately exchange medicines information and facilitate key eHealth and organisational uses cases. 

It will be a national medicines data fabric that open the doors for health information interoperability between medicines information systems, processes, knowledge systems, and care settings.  

It is expected that over time the content authored and managed by the NMPC will continue to expand (particularly to capture the benefits of IDMP, Identification of Medicinal Products within ISO). It will cover:  

• Medicinal Product Information 
• Medicinal Product Pack Information 
• Ingredient Information 
• Regulatory Information 
• Reimbursement Information 
• Clinical Particulars 
• Advanced Clinical Support