Interpretation and reflections on “technical specifications for dispensing commonly used Chinese patent medicines in clinical emergency and critical care, part 7: tablet” (T/CACM 1378.1-2022)

Acute and critical illness refers to acute conditions necessitating urgent intervention and critical illness that directly threatens patient survival, involving severe organ failure and unstable vital signs. Chinese patent medicine dispensing is the process of preparing Chinese patent medicines for patients under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory and entails legal responsibility. As one of the principal dosage forms of Chinese patent medicines, tablets offer the advantages of precise dosing and stable quality and are widely employed in the treatment of acute and critical diseases. However, at present, the dispensing of Chinese patent medicines in tablet form for clinical acute and critical illness is encumbered by several challenges, including non-standardized techniques, insufficient equipment and technical support, a shortage of qualified personnel, and the potential for drug interactions and incompatibility. To address these issues, the research team from the Dispensing Standardization Research Center of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine has led the development of the Technical Specifications for Dispensing Commonly Used Chinese Patent Medicines in Clinical Emergency and Critical Care, Part 7: Tablet, which standardizes nine dispensing procedures for emergency tablets in medical institutions, including prescription review, purchase acceptance, inventory management, prescription deployment, prescription review, drug distribution and medication accounting, medication monitoring, prescription evaluation, and pharmacovigilance. Based on a systematic interpretation of the core content of the specification, this paper further analyzed the practical challenges encountered by different levels of medical institutions during the implementation process, such as disparities in infrastructure, human resources and informatization; discussed the anticipated clinical safety and economic cost-effectiveness following the implementation of the specification; and conducted a comparative analysis and integration pathway assessment with Western emergency pharmaceutical care guidelines. The aim is to provide a reference for advancing the standardization, precision and internationalization of the dispensing of Chinese patent medicine tablets in acute and critical cases.