Max Rady College of Medicine

Concept: American Hospital Formulary Service (AHFS) Pharmacologic-Therapeutic Classification System

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Concept Description

Last Updated: 2005-12-05

Introduction

    The AHFS system for classifying drugs is commonly used in North America. This system is updated once a year, and is published as a book by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists ( http://www.ashp.org/ ). See AHFS Drug Information Web Site at: http://www.ahfsdruginformation.com/ for more information.

    The AHFS code is a 6 digit number which includes three levels of information arranged in a step-up / step-down manner. For example, all AHFS codes starting with 20 represent a broad class of drugs for Blood Formation and Coagulation. Additional information is provided for sub-categories of this class as digits are added:

    Example:
    20:00 Blood Formation and Coagulation
    20:04 Anti-anemia Drugs
    20:04.04 Iron Preparations
    20:04.08 Liver and Stomach Preparations
    In Manitoba, the top 20 AHFS categories dispensed to residents for 1996 are provided below. These categories have been ranked by the number of claims. They represent 73.3% of all drug claims for that year.
      AHFS Classification # of claims % of claims
    1 24:04.00 Cardiac Drugs 690,884 10.30
    2 08:12.16 Penicillins 479,336 7.14
    3 28:08.04 Nosteroidal Anti-inflammatory Agents 363,463 5.42
    4 28:08.08 Opiate Agonists 338,537 5.05
    5 28:24.08 Benzodiazepines 331,469 4.94
    6 28:16.04 Antidepressants 329,410 4.91
    7 56:40.00 Misc GI Drugs 303,629 4.53
    8 40:28.00 Diuretics 261,365 3.90
    9 68:12.00 Contraceptives 257,689 3.84
    10 12:12.00 Sympathomimetic Agents 244,971 3.65
    11 84:06.00 Anit-inflammatory Agents 169,159 2.52
    12 92:00.00 Unclassified Therapeutic Agents 154,618 2.30
    13 08:12.12 Macrolides 153,869 2.29
    14 08:40.00 Misc Anti-infectives 141,349 2.11
    15 24:06.00 Antilipemic Agents 131,702 1.96
    16 24:12.00 Vasodilating Agents 128,248 1.91
    17 68:04.00 Adrenals 116,982 1.74
    18 68:16.00 Estrogens 112,034 1.67
    19 68:20.20 Sulfonylureas 107,044 1.60
    20 52:08.00 EENT Anti-inflammatory Agents 101,229 1.51
    Totals = 4,916,987 73.28

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References 

  • Kozyrskyj A, Brown TER, Mustard CA. Community pharmacist perceptions of a provincial drug utilization database. Can Pharm J 1998;131(8):24-29.(View)
  • Kozyrskyj AL, Mustard CA. Validation of an electronic, population-based prescription database. Ann Pharmacother 1998;32(11):1152-1157. [Abstract] (View)
  • Metge C, Black C, Peterson S, Kozyrskyj A, Roos NP, Bogdanovic B. Analysis of Patterns of Pharmaceutical Use in Manitoba, 1996: Key Findings - A POPULIS Project. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1999. [Report] [Summary] (View)
  • Metge C, Hendricksen C, Maine L. Consumer attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions about pharmacies, pharmacists, and pharmaceutical care. J Am Pharm Assoc 1998;38(1):37-47.(View)
  • Metge C, Black C, Peterson S, Kozyrskyj AL. The population's use of pharmaceuticals. Med Care 1999;37(6 Suppl):JS42-JS59. [Abstract] (View)
  • Miller E, Blatman B, Einarson TR. A survey of population-based drug databases in Canada. Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996;154(12):1855-1884. [Abstract] (View)

Keywords 

  • pharmaceuticals


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Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine,
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences,
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