ICN and IHTSDO partner to provide a new Informatics Resources for nurses

International Council of Nurses (ICN) and International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO)
partner to provide a new Informatics Resources for nurses

Geneva, Switzerland, Copenhagen, Denmark, 20 January 2014 - The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) are pleased to announce an equivalency table between the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) concepts and SNOMED CT concepts. The table contains ICNP Diagnosis and Outcomes Statements that have semantic equivalencies with SNOMED CT concepts.

ICNP is an international standard that facilitates the description and comparison of nursing practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The ICNP terminology serves a critical role for ICN in facilitating representation of the domain of nursing practice worldwide to promote evidenced based quality care. ICNP provides nurses with content solutions for electronic health records (EHRs) at all levels to support data-based information for use in practice, administration, education and research. SNOMED CT, a multidisciplinary international healthcare terminology, is designed to support the entry and retrieval of clinical concepts in electronic record systems and the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information.

“This equivalency table between ICNP and SNOMED CT is a tangible demonstration of how collaboration among standards development organisations can contribute to improved and standardized documentation of healthcare delivery,” noted ICN CEO David Benton. “Greater standardization supports the larger goal of interoperability of systems as well as better understanding of the contributions that each discipline makes to health outcomes and the effective and efficient use of health resources.“

“The IHTSDO is pleased to see this work being made available to users internationally and hopes that there will be feedback on its usage over time in supporting the care of individuals on a multidisciplinary basis. Continued collaboration with ICN is important to the IHTSDO going forward, providing a key link to the nursing profession internationally” said Jane Millar, Head of Collaboration at IHTSDO.

This new product advances the collaboration on terminology development agreed between ICN and IHTSDO in their 2010 harmonization agreement by allowing ICN to make the equivalency table available through its website at the ICNP Download page ( http://www.icn.ch/pillarsprograms/icnp-download/ ). Although this table is not formally endorsed by IHTSDO, persons interested in using it should review the terms of the SNOMED CT Affiliate License before downloading ( www.ihtsdo.org/licence.pdf ).

The product can be a useful resource to nurses and healthcare facilities interested in using SNOMED CT for documentation in EHRs and using ICNP to help identify clinically relevant content for use in documentation of nursing care.

An additional product from ICN, the ICNP Technical Implementation Guide, was also recently released with the intent of supporting ICNP users, from vendors to nurses in care delivery settings. When used alongside documentation available on the IHTSDO website ( http://ihtsdo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/ ), the Implementation Guide will be of particular use to those who choose to access and use the ICNP-SNOMED CT Equivalency Table in that it gives details about applications that use ICNP, approaches to implementation, structure and content of ICNP, and technical overview. The ICNP Implementation Guide is available on the ICN website ( www.icn.ch/pillarsprograms/implementing-icnpr/ ).

My source: Amy L Amherdt, icn-ehealth

Consultation on the proposed withdrawal of the SNOMED CT national care planning content

In addition to responding myself, I notice on the actual consultation page on 'Citizen Space' there is an option to share this consultation.

Dear Peter,

You are registered for the care planning content via the HSCIC Technology Reference data Update Distribution website.

The national Care Planning Content is designed for use to support care planning functionality across health and social care. This functionality crosses many professions/sectors which may have differing descriptions for a care plan in the traditional health record (e.g. treatment plans, birthing plans, support plans, intervention plans or care order sets). The content can support the interoperation of care plans across boundaries and paper based care plans based on the pack have also been used successfully to gain greater familiarity with structured terminology (SNOMED CT).

More details at: http://www.infostandards.org/careplanning

The absence of a declared owner or sponsor for this product means that we are proposing to withdraw it and are keen to hear views and understand the impact of not maintaining this content and its associated services.

We have a number of questions to determine how information Standards could best support the development of a standard for care planning, the consultation can be found at:

https://consultations.infostandards.org/bdea/snomed-ct-care-planning/consult_view

- and we would value and encourage your feedback on this proposal.

If you have any questions regarding the above you can contact us by sending an e-mail to information.standards AT hscic.gov.uk. This is the preferred form of communication.

You can also telephone for advice and support. Our telephone number is +44 845 13 00 114
We are available weekdays from 9am to 5pm.

Regards
The TRUD support team
Health and Social Care Information Centre

Infostandards.org: HSCIC supports the information standards community

Dear Peter,

You may have seen the publicity this week regarding the launch of a new website, www.infostandards.org, developed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, working with the Department of Health, NHS England and other commissioning partners.

Infostandsards.org has been developed to support information standards professionals across health and social care. The site provides a single place where all information standards can be located, along with valuable supporting material, such as e-learning, implementation guidance and case studies. It also enables users of the site to become active participants in the development and appraisal of standards, by providing the means to share material, draw on each others’ experiences and engage in discussions about existing and potential future standards.

TRUD is pleased to support this new venture and recognises the importance of engaging with information standards professionals across health and social care. The site provides a single place where all information standards can be accessed, along with valuable supporting materials, such as e-learning, implementation guidance and case studies. It also enables users of the site to share material, draw on each other’s experiences and engage in discussions about existing and potential future standards, collections and extractions.

The site’s scope and design will evolve continually to meet the needs and preferences of the community, so we encourage you to become active users and help shape its future development. It is the intention that the site will be an integral part of the assurance process for information standards and collections, details of which will be made available on the site in due course.

Dr Ken Lunn, Director of Information Standards Delivery, said:

"We have supported the creation of the infostandards.org website because openness and increased engagement with end users can only improve the development, delivery and adoption of effective information standards. Standards are essential to the delivery of improved, digitally enabled health and care services and by collaborating with the wider community we can tackle together the challenges we all face. I look forward to seeing how the site will be used by the community."

In support of implementation of the NHS dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d) the Pharmacy Terminology team are currently updating some of the dm+d implementation guidance. Following feedback from the community a starter guide to dm+d providing an overview of dm+d, an explanation of the Standard, how it relates to the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension and some fundamentals on content, structure and the release itself has been drafted and is available for comment on infostandards.org.

http://www.infostandards.org/topic/prescribing/dmd-draft-user-guide-available-for-review

The guidance is not currently ready for formal consultation but we would value your input at this juncture to see if the contents are useful and useable.

Questions about www.infostandards.org can be sent to info.standards AT hscic.gov.uk and via twitter where you can follow us @infostandards

Regards

The TRUD support team
Health and Social Care Information Centre

International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation: 2012 Report

IHTSDO CoP: 2012 Annual Activity Report Now Available

Our annual activity report for 2012 is now available in two formats:

Online magazine: www.ihtsdo.org/activity_report

PDF: www.ihtsdo.org/activity_report.pdf

We hope you enjoy it! Any comments or questions can be sent to info AT ihtsdo.org.

Source and many thanks to Juliet Krarup (ihtsdo staff)