Table 3. Relative costing of AWARD framework versus traditional free-text only method.

	Unique text to code	Time (hours)a	Estimated cost (USD)b	Number of medication reports collected	Cost per medication report entry (USD)
AWARD system
Database/web programming	-	73.5	$2279
Set-up—curation of list of common medications	-	15.0	$465
Set-up—coding of list of common medications	2025	25.3	$785
Coding of free-text entries	2529	28.5	$882
TOTAL	4554	142.3	$4410	128,893	$0.03
Traditional free-text only approach
Database/web programming	-	36.4	$1127
Coding of free-text entries	70891	797.5	$24,723
TOTAL	70891	833.9	$25,850	128,893	$0.20

^aAssumptions: 45 seconds per medication allocated for curation of list of common medications;

40.5 seconds allocated for coding of list of common medications (two coders—18.7 seconds each, plus 3.1 seconds per medication for discordance resolution given that 1 out of 6 medications were discordant and required coding by a third coder); 40.5 seconds allocated for coding of free-text entries (two coders plus a third coder for 1 out 6 medications); In the free-text only approach 45% of reports would be duplicate free text, hence only 55% of reported medications would require coding.

^bCost per hour calculated based on hourly rate of 31 USD for Research Officer and rounded to the next whole number.