Thought everyone woudl be interested in this. 
Looks like sense might prevail in the standards world. If the strengths of the 
two systems are put together we should get a superb system. I have been 
assured thaht teh work on codes for message use will be completed and 
can't in any case see how SNOMED (or LOINC) could currently fill this gap.

Rick


Subject: DoH Electronic Patient Records


1999/0232 Wednesday 14th April 1999

ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORDS MOVE A STEP CLOSER

NHS and College of American Pathologists to create world standard in
clinical terminology

Electronic patient records for everyone in the country have moved a step
closer with an agreement between the NHS Executive and the College of
American Pathologists (CAP), Baroness Hayman, Health Minister, announced
today.

The agreement will create a new world standard for computerising medical
terminology - necessary for the effective introduction of electronic health
records.

The combined clinical terminology will allow health professionals to create
medical records using a set of standard agreed codes for clinical terms.
This means that a record will be understood by any clinician who accesses
it, wherever they are working from.

Lady Hayman said:

"Information in the NHS must be available 24 hours a day to support patients
in the best way possible and that means helping doctors, nurses and other
health professionals make the most of modern technology. The NHS information
strategy made a clear commitment to providing electronic patient records for
everyone in this country which will allow access to information when people
need it. In order to do this, our clinicians need a common, agreed language
for use in creating the records and this agreement will allow that to
happen."

Currently there are two world-leading standards - the CAP's Systematized
Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED-RT) and Clinical Terms Version 3 (Read
Codes), the thesaurus of medical terms developed by the NHS. These systems
are updated regularly and their future editions will be a joint
Anglo-American enterprise, standardising healthcare language throughout the
English speaking world.

The agreement follows extensive consultation work and has been endorsed by
the Royal Colleges and leading clinicians. Partnership arrangements will
ensure that NHS staff and the UK clinical professions will have an equal say
in development of the new system. Joint working groups will also be
established between equivalent US and UK clinical colleges.

Thomas P Wood, president of the CAP, said:

"As an advocate of high-quality medical care, the CAP is delighted to work
with the NHS on this historic project which will ultimately give patients
increased access to quality healthcare. This will be a true scientific
collaboration and will make the best use of both the existing systems to
create a unified system that can be used around the world. Both are widely
respected and proven out in the field so it makes good sense to bring them
together."

Professor Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, said:

"I very much welcome this exciting initiative. The extensive work carried
out by clinicians in the UK will be incorporated into what will become the
international standard, which will reflect the needs of doctors and other
health professionals in the NHS."

SNOMED-RT and Clinical Terms Version 3 (Read Codes) will continue to
exist separately until the new work is established. The NHS and CAP
will work closely with doctors, system suppliers, government agencies
and end-users to make a smooth transition from their current clinical
vocabularies to the new work, which will be available by 2001.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The electronic patient record plays a key role in the NHS Information
Strategy - 'Information for Health'. The aim is that every person in the
country will have an electronic record by 2005, which will be instantly
available to health professionals 24 hours a day.

2. Today's agreement was recommended by the independent Read Code
Evaluation report, the first stage of which will be placed on the NHS
Information Authority Coding and Classification web site:
http://www.nhsccc.carelink.co.uk. The report confirms that, despite
concerns about past financial arrangements the Codes themselves meet the
necessary technical criteria.

3. The NHS Executive will issue guidance which will mandate the use of a
coded clinical terminology (currently Clinical Terms Version 3 (Read Codes))
within the NHS, outline the agreement with CAP and explain how the
transition arrangements to the new work will be developed in partnership
with suppliers.

4. The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is a medical society serving
more than 15,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout
the world. It is the world's largest association composed exclusively of
pathologists. SNOMED-RT is the CAP's clinical vocabulary supporting data
capture, retrieval, analysis and transfer.

5. In 1990 the NHS Executive established the NHS Centre for Coding
and Classification (CCC) to develop clinical terms. The NHS CCC now
forms part of the NHS Information Authority. Read Codes were originally
developed in the early 1980s to enable patient records in general practice
to represent clinical concepts in a concise and compact manner. Clinical
Terms Version 3 (Read Codes) was developed with clinicians to reflect the
language used in contemporary health care delivery.

6. The NHS will provide modelling and editing expertise to the value of #1.8
million per year for three years to develop a joint terminology. Thereafter
NHS efforts will concentrate on maintaining NHS-only modifications and user
support for the terminology.

7. Treasury approved the business case for the partnership with CAP. The NHS
will have free use of the New Work in the UK in perpetuity and will receive
a share of income from world-wide sales. The Principles for co-operation
between the NHS and CAP will be placed on the NHS Information Authority
Coding and Classification web site: http://www.nhsccc.carelink.co.uk .


[ENDS]







# = pounds sterling



Dr Rick Jones
Director of Chemical Pathology and Immunology
Institute of Pathology
Tel:(44)-113-233-5677
Fax:(44)-113-233-5672
http://www.acb.org.uk
http://www.yichi.org.uk
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/rdinfo //Winner - Best Health Database HC99


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%