title: Characteristics of health interventions: a systematic analysis of the Austrian Procedure Catalogue.
abstract: The Austrian Procedure Catalogue contains 1,500 codes for health interventions used for performance-oriented hospital financing in Austria. It offers a multiaxial taxonomy. The aim of this study is to identify characteristics of medical procedures. Therefore a definition analysis followed by a typological analysis was conducted. Search strings were generated out of code descriptions regarding the heart, large vessels and cardiovascular system. Their definitions were looked up in the Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary and documented. Out of these definitions, types which represent characteristics of health interventions were abstracted. The three axes of the Austrian Procedure Catalogue were approved as well as new, relevant information identified. The results are the foundation of a further enhancement of the Austrian Procedure Catalogue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria. sabrina.neururer@i-med.ac.at
authors.forename: Sabrina B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Neururer
authors.forename: Karl-Peter
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D002377:Catalogs as Topic; D057225:Data Mining; D004018:Dictionaries, Medical as Topic; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000145:classification*; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled