Before Meals

pharmacy

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

A Latin abbreviation used in medication prescribing meaning before meals. Used in pharmacy prescription instructions and medication administration records in EHR systems to specify drug timing relative to meals for medications requiring fasting or food interaction management.

Standard Abbreviation

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  ac VARCHAR(100),  -- Before Meals (max 100 chars)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  ac as before_meals
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

PBM claims adjudication and drug utilization review
Controlled substance monitoring and DEA compliance
Pharmacy data warehouse and ETL pipeline design
Prior authorization and step therapy workflows
Medicare Part D reporting and CMS submissions

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
ac

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  ac           VARCHAR(100),  -- Before Meals (max 100 chars)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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