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Clinical data collections in Europe: Terminologies and classifications in primary care

par Jamoulle, Marc
Référence International journal of medicine, 7, 1, page (37-47)
Publication Publié, 2005-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Objective- To present various approaches in the field of disease identification and classifications and to review the clinical classifications. Design- Informatics Review. Setting- International Consensus development conference on Informatics, Medinfo 2001, London, UK. Methods used- This paper presents a consensus reached among the attending scientists. This consensus was centred on a proposal by Jean Marie Rodrigues, of the University of St. Etienne in France. He evoked the imperative need for a reference terminology that would freely be available through the Open Source model and which would allow one to coordinate various currently available coding system through a European, or even worldwide network. The clinical vocabularies that are currently available, often called clinical terminology, are not really suited to allow for comparisons, multiple uses, and are difficult to maintain. There is a recent development of third generation tools such as SNOWED-RT and GALEN. Developing an "Open Terminology", parallel to the current developments of "Open Health" will become unavoidable in order to face the challenges of trans-European and multilingual data comparisons. Results- One of the important issues discussed is the considerable effort such a tool would require, although it is essential if one hopes to transform the clinical data "graveyards" into a consultation tool. Producing such a reference terminology surpasses any single country's capacities; only a joint international effort could face such a challenge. Conclusions- The correspondence to international classifications, and in particular to the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification family is indispensable. Such a terminology must allow for a faultless application by real clinical services, for specialised as well as for first recourse, and whose coding needs are distinct.