VA National Drug File Reference Terminology: a cross-institutional content coverage study.
BACKGROUND
Content coverage studies provide valuable information to potential users of terminologies. We detail the VA National Drug File Reference Terminology's (NDF-RT) ability to represent dictated medication list phrases from the Mayo Clinic. NDF-RT is a description logic-based resource created to support clinical operations at one of the largest healthcare providers in the US.


METHODS
Medication list phrases were extracted from dictated patient notes from the Mayo Clinic. Algorithmic mappings to NDF-RT using the SmartAccess Vocabulary Server (SAVS) were presented to two non-VA physicians. The physicians used a terminology browser to determine the accuracy of the algorithmic mapping and the content coverage of NDF-RT.


RESULTS
The 509 extracted documents on 300 patients contained 847 medication concepts in medication lists. NDF-RT covered 97.8% of concepts. Of the 18 phrases that NDF-RT did not represent, 10 were for OTC's and food supplements, 5 were for prescription medications, and 3 were missing synonyms. The SAVS engine properly mapped 773 of 810 phrases with an overall sensitivity (precision) was 95.4% and positive predictive value (recall) of 99.9%.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates that NDF-RT has more general utility than its initial design parameters dictated
Brown
Steven H
SH
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 1310 24th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37212, USA. steven.brown@med.va.gov
Elkin
Peter L
PL
Rosenbloom
S Trent
ST
Husser
Casey
C
Bauer
Brent A
BA
Lincoln
Michael J
MJ
Carter
John
J
Erlbaum
Mark
M
Tuttle
Mark S
MS
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D000465:Algorithms; D006770:Hospitals, Group Practice; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008128:Logic; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital; D008910:Minnesota; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000145:classification*; D012984:Software; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations