Documentation
The developer portal documentation can now be accessed without myGovID and RAM authentication via https://data-api-portal.health.gov.au/
The developer portal documentation has been updated to reflect the v3.1 changes.
Updated versions of the following documentation is available in our article on Accessing PBS public and embargo data via the API:
- PBS DDS - Data Dictionary
- API Data Model
Enhancements
The ITEM_T/items endpoint has been updated with new columns:
- THERAPEUTIC_EXEMPTION_INDICATOR - CHAR(1)
- This indicates whether or not a therapeutic group exemption applies for a ready prepared item. Mapping for Infusible Items <infusible> should be the same as Ready Prepared Items <ready-prepared>, noting there are no such cases currently in the data.
- PREMIUM_EXEMPTION_GROUP_ID - NUMBER(12)
- Lists the group id that links all Items under the same Premium Exemption Group.
- DOCTORS_BAG_GROUP_TITLE - VARCHAR(50)
- The title of the indicating group of medicines on the Prescriber Bag schedule where a prescriber can access one of the drugs from a group per month.
- THERAPEUTIC_GROUP_ID - NUMERIC (12)
- The identifier of the Group used to denote medicines of the same type treating the same condition. Medicines in a Therapeutic Group are said to be interchangeable at the patient level.
- THERAPEUTIC_GROUP_TITLE - VARCHAR(50)
- The title of the Group used to denote medicines of the same type treating the same condition. Medicines in a Therapeutic Group are said to be interchangeable at the patient level.
- ADVANCED_NOTICE_DATE - DATE
- The date on which an Item is placed into advanced notice status for future delisting or supply only purposes.
- SUPPLY_ONLY_END_DATE - DATE
- The end date of the Supply Only period. Relative to SUPPLY_ONLY_START_DATE, which is an existing field in the table.
- FIRST_LISTED_DATE - DATE
- The date at which an Item's listing (at the Trade Product Pack level) on the PBS became effective for the first time.
In response to multpiple requests from API users, we have added the default Program_Code to Dispensing_Rule records. While the PBS legislation does not support such a concept, it can be generalised that there is a dispensing rule that relates to the most common dispensing events for a particular program (for example, most items on the General Schedule are dispensed in a community pharmacy). To achieve this, a new table/endpoint “program-dispensing-rules” has been created. The table is defined as:
PROGRAM_DISPENSING_RULES_T
A table that captures the dispensing rules that relate to each individual program.
PROGRAM_CODE VARCHAR(10) MANDATORY
A Program Code groups together PBS Items that have the same pricing model and follow the same business rules. Required for the PBS website, Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits and legislative instruments compiled by the PBS Publishing Team.
The list of program codes can be found here: https://dev.pbs.gov.au/faq/program-codes.html
DISPENSING_RULE_MNEM VARCHAR(100) MANDATORY
A short descriptive phrase to enable the identification of a group of Dispensing Rules.
DEFAULT_INDICATOR CHAR(1) MANDATORY
Indicates that this is the default dispensing rule for the program. Default value = "N"
SCHEDULE_CODE NUMBER(12, 0) MANDATORY
Schedule Code is a unique identifier given to each month's Schedule. By having a Schedule Code in each table, 13 months (schedules) worth of data can be maintained in the Data Mart to assist users in the identification of Delisted Items and change-over-time. In order to see what year/month/effective date a schedule code refers to, look it up in the SCHEDULE_T table
Bug fixes
Several errors were reported by Users of the system in the previous period and were addressed as part of this release. These are:
- The variation_rule_applied column in the restrictions endpoint was not being calculated correctly.
- In the summary_of_changes endpoint, Delete statements were referencing the incorrect Schedule_Code as part of the WHERE clause in the SQL_Statement field.
- In the summary_of_changes endpoint, changes between schedules released during the Embargo period were incorrectly referencing previous schedules.
- In the item-dispensing-rule-relationships endpoint, the DISPENSE_FEE_TYPE_CODE was being set incorrectly for Extemporaneous Items (PROGRAM = “EP”).
- Descriptions in the Swagger documentation/Data Dictionary for fields in the item-restriction-relationships endpoint have been revised and updated.