Terminology and Coding Systems

Description

There is currently little ICT support for the administration and management of coding systems and terminology in the field of health. Established coding systems and terminologies have been used to varying degrees and in different ways. As regards re-use and reproducibility, the version management is not satisfactory.

In order to ensure a comprehensive ICT support, it would be practical to gather both the administrative and health-related coding systems so that they are readily available to all consumers, and to ensure increased quality in their management. All relevant coding systems and terminologies are therefore expected to be stored and/or represented and made available in a central, national solution. Future ICT support should be comprehensive and user-friendly, and cover both health-related and administrative coding systems. The solution must help to streamline the administration, management and communication of coding systems, and support relevant work tasks, including the development and maintenance of coding systems, preparation for the use of coding systems in ICT professional systems or code lookup online, operational support functions for health care or the exercise of authority, statistics and research.

Goals

Provide a knowledge base for assessing experiences concerning comprehensive ICT support for terminology and coding systems through a survey of the status of current infrastructure solutions, solutions and architectural approaches currently in use or expected to be adopted in the near future. A terminology server is a possible component, but there may also be other solutions.