Conference Summary
The full text of the Conference Summary Report (AHCPR Pub.
No. 96-0069) is available online, or you may order a print copy from the Publications
Clearinghouse. Call toll free 800-358-9295.
Overview
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) and the
American Medical Informatics Association cosponsored an
international conference aimed at moving toward vocabulary
standards for coding primary care data. In collecting health
services research
data, AHCPR relies on documentation provided by primary care
practitioners. Without data standards and vocabulary, researchers
will not be able to capture the content of primary care
practice.
Conclusions
Many vocabularies exist for describing primary health care.
Consistent use of any one
vocabulary is rarely found even within the boundaries of
individual nations, much less
throughout the world. The conference participants first agreed on
the characteristics needed for a
primary care vocabulary. Then they agreed that no existing
vocabulary is sufficient for the many
needs of primary care, health statistics, billing, and health
services research.
In this report, the strengths and weaknesses of the current
primary care vocabularies are
identified. The International Classification of Primary Care
(ICPC), the Read Codes, the
Systematized Nomenclature of Human and Veterinary Medicine
(SNOMED), and the National
Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) are
examined. The conference
participants agreed that ICPC, the Read Codes, and SNOMED should
be used as building blocks
for a standard vocabulary. All primary care vocabularies should
be added to UMLS , which
should be explored as a possible link to connect the coding
systems proposed for primary care.
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