Rob Carruthers wrote:
> I would appreciate some advice from the list.
Hi Rob

Are you aware of what OSCAR is doing in BC?

I am a doc in Pemberton (just north of Whistler) and I am co-chair of 
the OSCAR BC UserGroup and President of the OSCAR Canada Users Society.

We have recently been discussing Snomed-CT - currently using ICD9 (not 
good).

I will send you my phone number offline.

Cheers

Jel Coward
http://OSCARcanada.org



>   Our community is currently in the process 
> of selecting new EMR software for a number of independent clinics.  As a former modest 
> EMR developer in the late 80s to mid 90s, I had some lengthy discussions basically about 
> the same issues on this list in the "remote" past. 
>
> Background:  The British Columbia government, has recently implemented substantial 
> financial support to help physicians implement EMR systems.  As part of this process, 5 
> vendors were selected that met the RFP requirements.  Only one of the 5 vendors has a 
> substantially "codified" record (Emis).  The other vendors support the coding of problem 
> lists by ICD9 or Snomed-CT, but not the text of progress notes, medications or 
> procedures for example.  They all however support pretty extensive search and reporting 
> capabilities.  Two clinics in our community have been using EMR since 1980 so 
> we are not neophytes to the advantages of EMR in general.
>
> Read codes, and now Snomed-CT would appear to be fundamental parts of UK EMRs, but 
> part of that may be requirements for standardization and reporting to government, not 
> necessarily clinical utility.
>
> Our local selection process is of little interest to GP UKs, but I would appreciate any 
> broad insights as to the "practical", not theoretical, value to us in going with a Snomed 
> based EMR system.  
>
> There is no current requirement for reporting clinical data to any government system.  
> There is a long term goal that a "core data set" would be available electronically for 
> patient care any where and any time, but no national standard currently exists for this.
>
> There is little interest by our local GPs in "Snomed" (few have even heard of it), and 
> those that do are suspicious that it will simply take longer to document a visit, with little 
> benefit for the patient or clinician.  Internet searches show that there is a lot of interest 
> in the codified record, but from my reading, there is a lack of evidence in proving the 
> theoretical advantages are of actual or significant clinical benefit.
>
> SNOMED CT – advances in concept mapping, retrieval, and ontological foundations. 
> Selected contributions to the Semantic Mining Conference on SNOMED CT (SMCS 2006)
> http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/8/S1/S1
>
> Forty years of SNOMED: a literature review
> http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/8/S1/S2
>
> Health Care Terminology for the Electronic Era
> http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/content/81/6/729.full
>
> Please feel free to contact me directly and take this discussion off line as appropriate.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help
>
> Rob Carruthers
> [log in to unmask]
> Wellington Medical Clinic
> Nanaimo, BC
>
>   


-- 
Jel
Check out the OSCAR Canada Users Society
http://OSCARcanada.org