A new research tool available on the Living Textbook provides an overview of RxNorm and explores the application of some of its associated tools in the research setting. RxNorm is a free, publicly available resource from the National Library of Medicine that provides “normalized” names and unique identifiers that make it possible to clearly identify a given drug. This allows information about medications to be exchanged across electronic health records (EHRs). In fact, the Office of the National Coordinator designated use of RxNorm as a criterion for EHR certification of interoperability and Stage 2 Meaningful Use.

The explanatory resource was developed by Michelle Smerek of the NIH Collaboratory’s Phenotypes, Data Standards, and Data Quality Core. Feedback is encouraged to help expand this tool.