title: Keeping up with changing source system terms in a local health information infrastructure: running to stand still.
abstract: Keeping up with changes in source system terms in a local health information infrastructure requires substantial effort. I developed a program to assist us that returns candidate mappings based on string similarities between newly encountered source test names, existing source test names, and our master dictionary term names. I evaluated this program's performance in identifying correct mappings through a retrospective study of term mappings to our master dictionary from four radiology systems. For source terms created after the initial system integration, the semi-automated mapping program identified correct mappings for 76.3% of terms from all systems. Overall, the program correctly identified mappings for 45.6% of all terms by exact string match to an existing term. The program identified correct mappings for 36.9% of the terms without an exact string match by string comparison to existing source terms, and for 54.4% of the remaining unmapped terms by string comparison directly to master dictionary terms. Because managing vocabulary mappings is resource-intensive, accurate automated tools can help reduce the effort required for ongoing health information exchange among disparate systems.
authors.affiliation: Regenstrief Institute, Inc., United States. dvreeman@regenstrief.org
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Vreeman
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D011873:Radiology Information Systems; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled