eISSN: 2576-4497

Hospice & Palliative Medicine International Journal

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Received: January 01, 1970 | Published: ,

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Introduction

There has been a trend in many developed countries to migrate from Read Version 2 to Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms¹ (SNOMED CT) signalling the end of an era for the former. SNOMED enables a patient’s diagnosis and clinical activity to be captured accurately. It also facilitates a seamless interchange of standardized patient information between health professionals.

Aim of the research & development

Pakistan’s F3 Technologies in associated with Valentia Technologies New Zealand² have researched and developed a “Clinical Terminology Server (SnoChillies)³” to provide a standardized clinical codes to accurately define clinical information in the electronic health records (EHR). Researchers wanted to develop a software service that enables clinicians who are not specifically trained in the SNOMED CT coding to use simple graphical interface and code a clinical event of condition. As per the rules defined by the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTDSO).⁴

Scope of research & development

To develop a To develop a “post coordination” API based tool and graphical system that channels the patient’s diagnosis to a precise description without having to understand the complexities of post coordination rules as defined by the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTDSO).⁴
To automatically leverage mapping between other terminologies e.g. International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD 10)⁵, Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC)⁶, Clinical Term Version 3⁷

Research & development approach

Review of literature on the application of SNOMED was undertaken.^8–10 Study site for implementation was Hamilton Region of New Zealand (population approximately 150,000)¹¹ in New Zealand’s north island. Study participants for the development phase included software developers engaged in the development of new EHR system and the clinical users at the pilot site for EHR system.

Conclusion

Accurate machine readable clinical data is at the core of future bio-informatics to reduce the clinical misadventure risks during information exchange and care delivery process. SnoChillies “post coordination” API provides a highly organized computerised pathway to deliver a descriptive diagnosis or clinical event information.