NZF/NZULM FHIR API Newsletter

February 2025

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the NZF/NZULM FHIR API technical updates newsletter.  Our goal is to keep you informed about the latest developments and provide clear explanations of updates to the NZF/NZULM FHIR API.

These newsletters will cover upcoming changes, recent changes and potential new features we've been discussing to grasp an idea of interest from the vendors.

We will aim to publish these newsletters on a regular basis and make them as useful as possible, so please share your feedback on the content or structure to help us improve.

Upcoming changes

S29 legal classifications

We currently add a legal classification extension to CTPP Medication resources which brings through the legal classification from the Medsafe data.  One of the challenges with this field is that it is often not available for Section 29 products.  In our previous discussions with vendors, we have suggested deriving a value from the linked 'Substance' Medsafe classifications (which we add to the appropriate MP Medication resources).  

In order to improve the API and reduce the work needed for vendors we are proposing that we will automatically populate this field for Section 29 CTPP medication resources with the 'highest' derived value from linked MPs.  If none of the linked MPs have substance classifications, then the value will default to 'Prescription'.  The classification order is:

• Controlled Drug A > Controlled Drug B > Controlled Drug C > Prescription Medicine

Although this isn't a structural change to the API it will mean there will be some extra data added so, please get back to us as soon as possible if there is going to negatively affect your current integration with the FHIR API or if you have any other feedback.

Composite pack quantities for Funding

To improve funding determination for CTPP Medication resources, particularly composite packs, we plan to introduce a new extension to the nzf-funding extension. This will primarily be populated by the TPP Total Unit of Use Quantity field (from the older dataset). In cases where this value doesn’t align with funding requirements, it will be overridden.

For those familiar with Pharmac’s community funding XML, the quantity value provided there will match this new extension value.

Please let us know if you have any feedback on this addition.

How to include subsidy information

CVX vaccine codes

Currently, CVX codes and descriptions are added to mapped medications via the description extension. We intend to include these codes in the Medication.code field, where appropriate, enabling better search and filtering capabilities.

Learn about the medicine code

Recent changes

Interactions

We have introduced support for interactions through custom operations. These map existing Stockley’s Interaction Alerts to ClinicalUseDefinition FHIR resources, allowing searches using NZMT medication concept IDs.

For details, visit the Interactions documentation or try the test FHIR Viewer. If you find this feature useful, please let us know and we can help you further with integration.

FHIR prescribing valueset

Displaying appropriate medications for community prescribing can be complex. To assist vendors, we now offer a FHIR valueset with a curated list of medication codes, accounting for composite packs and inert substances.

For more information, see Use Cases. This valueset is currently in testing and will be added to production following our internal QA process.

Funding rules update

We recently added the Pharmac ‘Multiple’ rule to the funding rule dataset, based on the ‘Multiple’ attribute in the Pharmac XML. For more details, see Funding Data.

Ideas for improvement to the API

The following ideas are currently in discussion. There is no commitment to implementing these ideas at this stage.