R Client for the medinfo Pharmaceutical Information API • medinfoR

R client for the medinfo API — a pharmaceutical information service built by the Clinical Pharmacy Saarland University. It provides drug interaction checks, adverse drug reactions (ADRs), pharmacogenetic guidelines, PRISCUS classifications, QT prolongation risk, product information, and more.

Installation

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("Clinical-Pharmacy-Saarland-University/medinfoR")

Or with devtools:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("Clinical-Pharmacy-Saarland-University/medinfoR")

Getting started

1. Set your password

New accounts receive an initial token by email. Use it to set your password:

library(medinfoR)

api_user_init_password(
  host     = "https://medinfo.precisiondosing.de/api/v1",
  user     = "your@email.com",
  token    = "token-from-email",
  password = "your-new-password"
)

creds <- api_login(
  host     = "https://medinfo.precisiondosing.de/api/v1",
  user     = "your@email.com",
  password = "your-password"
)

api_login() returns an ApiCredentials object that is passed to every API function. It handles token refresh automatically.

Functions

Drug interactions

# Single query by PZN (Pharmazentralnummer)
api_interaction_pzn(creds, pzns = c("02208615", "00558736"))

# Single query by compound name
api_interaction_compound(creds, compounds = c("Warfarin", "Aspirin"))

# Batch queries (multiple independent sets at once)
api_interaction_pzn_batch(creds, pzn_batches = list(
  list(pzns = c("02208615", "00558736"), id = 1, details = FALSE),
  list(pzns = c("01234567"), id = 2, details = TRUE)
))

api_interaction_compound_batch(creds, compound_batches = list(
  list(compounds = c("Warfarin", "Aspirin"), id = 1, details = FALSE, doses = TRUE)
))

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs)

api_adr_pzn(creds, pzns = c("02208615", "00558736"), lang = "english")
# lang: "english" | "german" | "german-simple"

Pharmacogenetic guidelines

api_compound_guideline(creds, compounds = c("Warfarin", "Clopidogrel"))
# Returns a list; each element has $input and $guidelines (data frame)

Compound name lookup

api_compound_name(creds, compounds = c("Aspirin", "Paracetamol"))
# Returns a list; each element has $input and $matches (data frame with name/type)

Product information

# Active compounds for PZNs
api_product_compounds_pzn(creds, pzns = c("02208615"))

# Product info (combination status, category)
api_product_info_pzn(creds, pzns = c("02208615", "00558736"))

# Available formulation codes
api_formulations(creds)

Safety classifications

# PRISCUS list (potentially inappropriate medications for elderly patients)
api_priscus_pzn(creds, pzns = c("02208615", "00558736"))

# QT prolongation risk
api_qt_pzn(creds, pzns = c("02208615", "00558736"))

System

api_ping(creds)   # health check
api_info(creds)   # API version and query limits

Account management

Profile

# Get your profile
api_user_profile(creds)

# Update profile (at least one field required)
api_user_update_profile(creds, first_name = "Jane", organization = "Uni Saarland")

Password

# Change password (requires current password)
api_user_change_password(creds, old_password = "old", new_password = "new")

# Request a password reset token by email (no login required)
api_user_request_password_reset(
  host  = "https://medinfo.precisiondosing.de/api/v1",
  email = "your@email.com"
)

# Confirm the reset with the token from the email
api_user_confirm_password_reset(
  host     = "https://medinfo.precisiondosing.de/api/v1",
  email    = "your@email.com",
  token    = "token-from-email",
  password = "new-password"
)

Email

# Request an email change (sends confirmation token to new address)
api_user_request_email_change(creds, email = "new@email.com")

# Confirm the change with the token
api_user_confirm_email_change(creds, token = "token-from-email")

Account deletion

api_user_delete(creds)

Admin functions

# List all users (admin role required)
api_get_users(creds)

# Create a regular user (admin role required)
api_create_user(creds, mail = "new@email.com", first_name = "Jane",
                last_name = "Doe", org = "Uni Saarland")

# Create a service user with a fixed password (admin role required)
api_create_service_user(creds, mail = "svc@email.com", first_name = "Service",
                        last_name = "Account", org = "Uni Saarland",
                        password = "service-password")

Full reference

Full function documentation is available at https://clinical-pharmacy-saarland-university.github.io/medinfoR/.

Development

Running tests

Unit tests use mocked HTTP calls and require no credentials:

devtools::test()

Integration tests call the live API. They are skipped automatically unless the required environment variables are set. Create a .env file in the package root:

# .env  (gitignored — never commit this file)
MEDINFO_HOST=https://medinfo.precisiondosing.de/api/v1
MEDINFO_USER=your@email.com
MEDINFO_PASSWORD=your-password

# Set to "true" to also run admin-only integration tests
MEDINFO_ADMIN=false

Then run:

devtools::test()                          # all tests including integration
devtools::test(filter = "integration")    # integration tests only

Other useful commands

roxygen2::roxygenise()   # regenerate documentation after editing roxygen2 comments
devtools::check()        # full R CMD check
pkgdown::build_site()    # build the pkgdown reference site

medinfoR