Dye Allergies

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Ackj

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What is the best way to handle dye allergies? For example, a patient says they are allergic to pink dye and cannot have any tablets with pink dye. Easy enough to make a patient note and that kind of stuff, but what about ordering a product? If the bottle on the shelf has pink dye, and we have to order one special for them, how can I see that the one I order in doesn't contain the dye? Cardinal has a field for tablet descriptions, but it always seems to be blank.
 
For some reason I thought you could see a picture of the tablet somewhere on Cardinal? Maybe I am wrong. I guess you could call and ask?

Or use a pill identification program to check the appearance of the product you are ordering.
 
Or use a pill identification program to check the appearance of the product you are ordering.
I thought of that, but Lexi comp only goes from pill appearance -> drug name, not vice versa. Drugs.com has one that gives some manufacturers, but not NDCs. Have a recommendation for a pill identifier that does it?
 
For some reason I thought you could see a picture of the tablet somewhere on Cardinal? Maybe I am wrong. I guess you could call and ask?
The only images I saw were pictures of the bottle, but many were "no image available."
 
I thought of that, but Lexi comp only goes from pill appearance -> drug name, not vice versa. Drugs.com has one that gives some manufacturers, but not NDCs. Have a recommendation for a pill identifier that does it?

One place I worked recently had one built into the computer system. I thought you could do it with Lexi. 🙁 Wonder if Clinical Pharm or F & C has that built in?
 
I *believe* micromedex may also offer ndc and excipient info.. but there is also a free site I feel like that will do it. Its something like drugs.com (not specifically that one but I swear I've seen it out there somewhere). Of course it also works to go to mfg website (talking dr reddys, mylan , etc). I think excipient info is required to be published.. they just never put it on the front page. I successfully googled ndcs to find it once.. of course for brand names it will usually be listed somewhere out front or in the package insert.
 
Call the manufacturer if you have questions about excipients/dyes/etc. Epocrates' app lists major manufacturers' phone numbers, but they are also easily available on the web.

It looks like these are sometimes also listed on dailymed (Google it).
 
I thought of that, but Lexi comp only goes from pill appearance -> drug name, not vice versa. Drugs.com has one that gives some manufacturers, but not NDCs. Have a recommendation for a pill identifier that does it?

Not sure about NDCs, but you can see pill pics from different manufacturers with both Epocrates as well as Facts and Comparisons (online -- unsure about the book).
 
The how supplied tab of clin pharm will tell you all the excipients in any specific generic.

But once you start doing it for someone expect the full crazy to come out. Really the only dye sensitivity that's legit is tartrazine (yellow 5)
 
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