HMUD System Information/FAQs
- What is HMUD?
- Who can access HMUD?
- How can I gain access to HMUD?
- What does HMUD provide?
- What data is currently held in HMUD?
- What software is required?
- Are there plans for HMUD to include ward level data?
What is HMUD?
HMUD is the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database. HMUD is one of the central workstreams of The National Medicines Utilisation Unit (NMUU). The overall objective of HMUD is to provide access to staff in NHS Boards and other interested parties to good high level information to support the assessment and monitoring of cost and clinical effectiveness of medicines used in hospital.
Who can access HMUD?
HMUD is available to NHS Scotland employees only.
How can I gain access to HMUD?
To gain access to HMUD you must complete an application form. Contact the HMUD team for details.
What does HMUD provide?
HMUD is one of a series of data marts that make up the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Corporate Data Warehouse. Functionality is provided to:
- Store the data centrally
- Update the data monthly
- Report and query the data using a web-based tool (Business Objects WebIntelligence)
- Allow users to run a set of standard, pre-built reports
- Allow advanced users to build, run and save their own ad-hoc queries
- Ensure data confidentiality and security.
The data held in HMUD can be interrogated to provide reports at hospital level and can be aggregated up to NHS Board and/or Cancer Network (where appropriate). The earliest data currently held in the system is from April 2007, though on an ongoing basis, data older than 5 years will not be made visible to users.
What data is currently held in HMUD?
Click here to view our latest visible HMUD data, per site 
[27kb], which gives information on what data is currently held within the system.
What software is required?
HMUD is a web-based system and therefore no set-up or additional software is required on your personal computer. You should be aware, however, that there is a minimum specification that needs to be met in order for the system to function correctly. Most computers running Windows XP are able to open the HMUD interface, however you may have to alter some of your Internet Explorer Settings. In addition, you may need to install a different version of Java Runtime Environment (versions 1.4.2_08 to 1.5.0_xx are suitable for Internet Explorer 6, while version 1.6.0_02 and above are suitable for IE 7). If you have any questions about the compatibility of your local machine, please email the HMUD team on nss.isdHMUD@nhs.net and we can send you a list of PC requirements.
Are there plans for HMUD to include ward level data?
The primary purpose of the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database (HMUD) is to enable comparison of patterns of medicines use between different hospitals and NHS Boards across Scotland. Following business analysis and in consultation with the HMUD User Reference Group it was agreed that the lowest sensible unit of reporting would be at hospital level. The principal reasons for this are threefold:
- While wards and departments can be attributed to a hospital there are a variety of organisational structures between these levels. The availability of data from pharmacy systems and level of detail relating to these organisational structures was variable.
- Ward level information can have little meaning outside the local context and so is of limited value in enabling comparisons between hospitals or NHS Boards
- Most hospitals already had established processes for detailed local reporting of medicines use, either as part of their pharmacy system or as a locally developed application
Other factors meaning that HMUD should not replace local medicines use reporting are that: HMUD data will be approximately three months behind the data that is available locally; activity data in HMUD is derived form national returns and may differ from and lag behind bed occupancy information that is collected locally; in order to standardise reporting, a set of rules was created for how to map local drug file entries to the standard drug file used in HMUD ? this means that the product reported in HMUD may not be the actual product used locally. Many of these issues are covered more fully in the HMUD Data Manual.
However, should there be significant user demand and appropriate funding can be identified then this is an area that could be revisited and an assessment made of whether a more detailed level of reporting would deliver real benefits and could be developed.
