The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) announced a collaborative arrangement with the World Health Organization (WHO) to harmonise WHO classifications and the Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) for the benefit of citizens worldwide.

The chair of the IHTSDO Management Board, Martin Severs stated in this regard: "IHTSDO sees this collaboration as a way to make it easier for patients, clinicians, and health authorities to get and use accurate and trusted information." He added: "We share the goal of having WHO classifications and SNOMED CT work effectively together in order to allow users of the standards from around the world to develop better information and to focus efforts on improving health and healthcare for individuals and populations."

WHO Classifications and SNOMED CT are complementary tools. When used together appropriately, they make it easier to summarise information from individual patients' health records into aggregate results needed for health policy, health services management and research.

"The road to health passes through information," said Tim Evans, WHO's Assistant Director General for Information, Evidence, and Research. "WHO and IHTSDO aim to increase collaboration to create and maintain jointly usable and integrated classification and terminology systems to make efficient and effective use of public resources and avoid duplication of effort. This is essential to create health information standards as a common language worldwide."

WHO Classifications are used to capture key information on diseases, disability and interventions and other indicators of population health. Main classifications such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), in use for more than 100 years worldwide, provide data on life expectancy, causes of death and inform the plans and decisions of health authorities in many countries. The detailed information that is aggregated for public health purposes using WHO classifications often comes from health records, which are increasingly being held in electronic form.

The Electronic Health Records (EHRs) contain information that is important for the care of individuals, such as health problems and care plans. Summaries of information in EHRs, extracted in a way that respects privacy of patients, are also crucial for the management, health financing and general health system administration. As a result, the accuracy and consistency of EHRs is crucial for both patient care to ensure sound management of health systems resources. SNOMED CT, a standardised health terminology, can help to represent clinically relevant information in a consistent, reliable and comprehensive way in EHRs. The terminology is used to help patients and their care providers capture more detailed key information on disease, disability, and interventions in patients' health records. Managed by the IHTSDO, terminology is used for this and other purposes in countries around the world.

This new agreement supports the aims of WHO and IHTSDO to enhance health through better health information. Synergies between WHO classifications and SNOMED CT have the potential, through better information to:

• improve the accuracy, reliability, and quality of health and health care;
• eliminate gaps in information;
• control costs.

Further information:

• Original news article - eHealthNews.eu Portal
• International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation
• World Health Organisation