Health Information Technology and Health Data Standards at NLM
NLM is the central coordinating body for clinical terminology standards within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NLM works closely with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to ensure NLM's efforts are aligned with the goal of the President and HHS Secretary for the nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure to improve the quality and efficiency of health care.
News and Updates
Important news/press releases
08/27/2012: Data Element Catalog for Stage 2 EHR Clinical Quality Measures
08/09/2012: SNOMED CT to ICD-10 Cross Maps available for download. See the IHTSDO press release for details about the maps.
more...06/05/2012: 2012 US Call for Nominations to IHTSDO standing committees due June 29.
06/04/2012: ADA, IHTSDO to incorporate dental diagnostic codes (SNODENT) into SNOMED CT.
05/15/2012: ICD-9-CM to SNOMED CT Map now available.
04/04/2012: NLM launches Meaningful Use/EHR Certification portal page to support implementers.
03/01/2012: NLM releases SNOMED CT to ICD-10-CM Cross Map.
Key Presentations
05/24/2012: Olivier Bodenreider presents to the eMeasures Issues Group: NLM Value Set Authority Center (ppt presentation)
more...02/29/2012: Betsy Humphreys presents to the HIT Policy Committee: "Stage 2 EHR Certification: NLM Vocabulary Update" (ppt presentation)
01/10/2012: Betsy Humphreys presents to the HIT Policy Committee: "Update on Vocabularies and Value Sets for Meaningful Use" (ppt presentation)
Health Data Standards
NLM supports interoperability through development of terminology subsets and other resources.
NLM supports the development, enhancement, and distribution of clinically specific vocabularies to facilitate the exchange of clinical data and improve retrieval of health information.
- Clinical Vocabularies supported, licensed, or developed by NLM:
SNOMED CT | US Extension to SNOMED CT| Convergent Medical Terminology
LOINC
RxNorm - Uniform distribution mechanism for HIPAA and clinical vocabulary standards through the UMLS Metathesaurus
- SNOMED CT Subsets:
NLM distributes FDA approved Structured Product Labels linked to RxNorm and related medication information:
NLM coordinates efforts to develop mappings between HIPAA code sets and standard clinical vocabularies.
NLM promotes harmonization between standards.
- Contract with HL7 to align HL7 message standard with CHI standard vocabularies and create implementation guides for exchange of entire EHRs.
- Clinical Vocabularies supported, licensed, or developed by NLM:
System Development Tools
Grants and Funding
Education and Training
- Funded Support for Academic Training in Biomedical Informatics & Bioinformatics - Formal programs and individual fellowships are offered to assist medical informaticians in pursuit of a degree.
- Medical Informatics Training Program - Support for visiting scientists and students to participate in research at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications. Medical Informatics Course at Woods Hole sponsored by NLM and the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory.
Key Reports Supported or Produced by NLM
- Computational Technology for Effective Health Care: Immediate Steps and Strategic Directions (2009) Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. National Research Council of the National Academies. Commissioned and partially funded by NLM. (PDF*, 660KB)
- Ending the Document Game (2005)
- Networking Health: Prescriptions for the Internet (2000)
- Evaluating the Coverage of Controlled Health Data Terminologies: Report on the Results of the NLM/AHCPR Large Scale Vocabulary Test (1997)
- For the Record: Protecting Electronic Health Information (1997)
- Making a Powerful Connection (1995)
*PDF documents require the use of the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader, which can be downloaded from the Adobe's Web site at no charge.