Standardized Terminologies in Heath Care Databases



Standardized Terminologies in Heath Care Databases

Standardized Terminology

The defined standards in any domain effectively assist and contribute in various aspects of our activities. Standards ensure that the desired elements are received for the products and services we use, and these elements include safety, quality, efficiency, etc. Standardized terminologies in the domain of health care facilitates with enormous benefits for the health care organizations. This brings a certain flow in the facilities to be received by the patients. Another effective aspect of the standardized terminologies is that is ensures the improved communication between the patients and heath care professionals (Hardiker et. al, 2000). The health care organization benefit from these terminologies by measuring patient care and handling their queries with information systems based records rather than manual approaches.

SNOMED CT

SNOMED CT is the abbreviation for “Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms”. This is a system based on automated processes that holds the collection of medical terminologies, and provides codes and essential data related to the clinical documents and reports. SNOMED is among the most comprehensive terminology in the domain of health care, with multi-linguistic features. The terminology is a recommendation by the IHTSDO, which is an international organization that maintains the development of such standards of health care (Wasserman et. al, 2003). SNOMED was a joint initiative of the NHS (UK) and CAP (USA). SNOMED focuses on Electronic health care records, and provides the health care professionals with efficient access to the desired information. The standard facilitates HER system and provides a better communication medium. The ownership, maintenance, and distribution of SNOMED CT is done by IHTSDO (Stearns et. al, 2001).

Incorporation of SNOMED into Organizational DB and CIS

SNOMED CT is incorporated in the organizational database and clinical information system to ensure the completion of the clinical documentation ...