title: A simple strategy for implementing standard reference terminologies in a distributed healthcare delivery system with minimal impact to existing applications.
abstract: The Veterans Administration (VA) has adopted an ambitious program to standardize its clinical terminology to comply with industry-wide standards. The VA is using commercially available tools and in-house software to create a high-quality reference terminology system. The terminology will be used by current and future applications with no planned disruption to operational systems. The first large customer of the group is the national VA Health Data Repository (HDR). Unique enterprise identifiers are assigned to each standard term, and a rich network of semantic relationships makes the resulting data not only recognizable, but highly computable and reusable in a variety of applications, including decision support and data sharing with partners such as the Department of Defense (DoD). This paper describes the specific methods and approaches that the VA has employed to develop and implement this innovative program in existing information system. The goal is to share with others our experience with key issues that face our industry as we move toward an electronic health record for every individual.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Information, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bouhaddou
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lincoln
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maulden
authors.forename: Holli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Pradnya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Warnekar
authors.forename: Viet
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Siew
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Steven H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Ferdinand J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Frankson
authors.forename: Glen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crandall
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sigley
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Insley
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Graham
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000592:standards; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled