Comments on: HIStalk Practice Interviews William Zurhellen http://www.histalkpractice.com/2009/12/27/histalk-practice-interviews-william-zurhellen/ Physician practice and systems news and opinion Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:34:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Jesran http://www.histalkpractice.com/2009/12/27/histalk-practice-interviews-william-zurhellen/comment-page-1/#comment-956 Jesran Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:49:04 +0000 http://www.histalkpractice.com/2009/12/27/histalk-practice-interviews-william-zurhellen/#comment-956 "My own feeling is that if we could get a single data structure and let vendors compete on the user interface, then all records would be compatible with all others." Such a data structure exists: SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine--Clinical Terms) is a comprehensive clinical terminology http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/Snomed/snomed_main.html It's actually not that bad to work with. It's open standard, maintained by the right people and comprehensive... even if very redundant. Anyway, you are right that the problem is that it costs money to port something like this to existing EMRs that are not so much patient care tools as they are revenue capture devices. SNOMEDCT has little or nothing to do with the latter, and in the end the former is why we have health care institutions in the first place. It is such a slow process to get past the money thing though. “My own feeling is that if we could get a single data structure and let vendors compete on the user interface, then all records would be compatible with all others.”

Such a data structure exists:
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine–Clinical Terms) is a comprehensive clinical terminology
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/Snomed/snomed_main.html

It’s actually not that bad to work with. It’s open standard, maintained by the right people and comprehensive… even if very redundant.

Anyway, you are right that the problem is that it costs money to port something like this to existing EMRs that are not so much patient care tools as they are revenue capture devices. SNOMEDCT has little or nothing to do with the latter, and in the end the former is why we have health care institutions in the first place. It is such a slow process to get past the money thing though.

]]> By: Bignurse http://www.histalkpractice.com/2009/12/27/histalk-practice-interviews-william-zurhellen/comment-page-1/#comment-951 Bignurse Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:06:04 +0000 http://www.histalkpractice.com/2009/12/27/histalk-practice-interviews-william-zurhellen/#comment-951 Great interview from the trenches. What we need is a virtual care plan, that tracks the patient's care, and follows the patient wherever they go. The data would exist because it would explain the care that was given to the child for their asthma (or whatever the diagnosis is). Outcomes would be obtained based on that data over time. Every EHR system would "talk to" the virtual care plan. Anything less than this model is fragmented and silo'ed. Great interview from the trenches. What we need is a virtual care plan, that tracks the patient’s care, and follows the patient wherever they go. The data would exist because it would explain the care that was given to the child for their asthma (or whatever the diagnosis is). Outcomes would be obtained based on that data over time. Every EHR system would “talk to” the virtual care plan. Anything less than this model is fragmented and silo’ed.

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