Overview

RxNav is a browser for several drug information sources, including RxNorm, RxTerms and MED-RT. RxNav finds drugs in RxNorm from the names and codes in its constituent vocabularies. RxNav displays links from clinical drugs, both branded and generic, to their active ingredients, drug components and related brand names. RxNav also provides lists of NDC codes and links to package inserts in DailyMed. The RxTerms record for a given drug can be accessed through RxNav, as well as clinical information from MED-RT, including pharmacologic classes, mechanisms of action and physiologic effects.

Starting RxNav

To start RxNav, click on the "Start RxNav" link above.

Searching in RxNav

Search Bar

The figure below shows the RxNav search bar annotated for the different components.


Search type examples
Clicking on the Id information icon on the left side of the search bar brings up a window containing descriptions of each identifier type that can be used in RxNav and an example identifier, which can be selected to run as an example.



Identifier Types
The identifier type pulldown menu shown below allows the user to change the search type (default:String).



Autosuggestion on String Searches
When a user is typing in a string, an autosuggestion list will appear after four characters have been entered. The suggestion list contains ingredients and/or brand names which contain the user's string. In the example below, the autocompletion list appears after the user has typed "well". Note the list contains drugs that start with "well" and additionally lists drugs containing the phrase "well".


Search History
Clicking on the search history icon on the right side of the search bar will display a selectable menu of previous searches in the user's session.


Redirecting the search to an active concept
A search result may point to a remapped or unquantified concept in RxNorm. If this is the case, RxNav will redirect the user to the active concept which replaces the remapped or unquantified concept. A message such as the one below will appear informing the user.


In some cases the user will have to choose between two or more concepts.


Spelling Suggestions
When no valid entries are found by RxNav, a popup menu is displayed indicating the term was not found. A list of spelling suggestions will be displayed for a string search in order of closeness to the entered term. The user can select from this list to continue the search.



Using the Copy Button
When a search is done, the title of the drug concept is displayed along with a copy icon to the left of the title as shown below. Selecting the copy icon saves the title name and the RxCUI in a copy buffer. The copy buffer can then be pasted into another document such as a spreadsheet.

Note: The copy button is not available on Internet Explorer browsers

Next: RxNav Views