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Hi! I'm An from Digile

bad lattes provide new insights

Published over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

Psssht… oh no! The coffee machine has filled my cup with a brownish dysenteric accident instead of a tasteful beige-brown foaming latte.

Not really what I had in mind.

During my meditative morning break I had been visualising how my lips would be decorated by a divine milk foam mustache under the heavenly scent of freshly ground coffee beans. Till the sudden burping, sizzling sound of sputtering water mixed with brownish detergent brought me back to reality.

A thorough dissection of the coffee machine’s abdomen takes me to the root cause of the incident: the milk connecting tube, which was no longer properly attached. A new insight that might however prove useful when brewing new and -certainly more tasteful- lattes.

Without minimal knowledge about the mechanics of the coffee machine, my lattes are sometimes rather dissatisfying.

The same holds true for drug information…

  • Do you sometimes wonder why drug names do not roll out properly from the e-prescription software, or whether your drugs are prescribable at all?
  • Do you know which checkboxes appear on the doctor’s computer screen when filling out the reimbursement forms of your drugs?
  • Do you know why e-prescribing software has suddenly rearranged the order of drug names for selection?


A better insight into the Belgian drug and prescription database will provide more control over the prescribability of your products to practitioners - among other insights that we'll be happy to share with you.

All right, but where do I easily find the official data? I already consult a bunch of websites…

Did you know that...

all official Belgian drug data are stored in SAM, the official source integrating data from FAGG/AFMPS, RIZIV/INAMI, BCFI/CBIP and Mediprices. SAM is the one and only source for e-presciption software. However, SAM export files are quite labyrinthic to the extent that even experienced IT-developers have given up on parsing them.


Fortunately, Digile has recently developed a free SAM viewer to consult all official SAM data: from authorization, over reimbursement and prices to BCFI information.

And luckily, Reader, you don't have to have to be an IT-specialist to browse it:-). However, it can be useful to have some SAM jargon in your belt and be prepared to find the most important data for the pharmaceutical industry.

Here's the good news for you: we have prepared a free SAM for smarties guide for you, which you can download here.

Ready to become a SAM smartie, Reader?

SAM for smarties guide

The guide provides you with:

  • the minimal SAM jargon
  • a checklist to check drug prescribability
  • key facts about SAM
  • tricks how to report errors

Have a nice day,

An from Digile

farmanaut.digile.be
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ps: do you find this helpful?

Thanks you for sharing this mail with your colleagues and let me know if we can be of any further help with SAM data.


Hi! I'm An from Digile

Want to learn how to easily integrate drug data, monitor changes and construct timelines for the European and Belgian drug market? Then subscribe to our newsletter and learn from our data experts. Nice to have you on board :-)

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