The term ‘dm+d’ is an abbreviation for ‘dictionary of medicines and devices’.  This NHS ‘vocabulary dictionary’ provides a standardised way of uniquely identifying specific medicines or medical devices, used in the diagnosis or treatment of patients.  It has been developed for use throughout the entire NHS.  The aim of the ‘dm+d’ database is to allow safe and reliable transfer of information between different clinical systems.  It will also improve safety of prescribing and dispensing of medicines for patients.  Medication errors will be reduced with the provision of consistent numerical codes known as ‘identifiers’ and ‘textual descriptions’ for specific medicines.  Further improvements will be seen with electronic prescribing when subsequent links with bar coding systems are developed.  Implementation of ‘dm+d’ within electronic prescribing systems in secondary and tertiary care will occur in due course.