Interface Terminologies: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Reality for Africa

In the United States and Europe, electronic health records (EHRs) allow information technology and decision-support to facilitate the activities of clinicians and are considered an important component of health care improvement. However, actual adoption of EHRs by physicians has been slow and the use of decision support has been minimal. Part of the difficulty lies in the challenges that users face in capturing structured clinical information. Reference and administrative terminologies have been in use for many years and provide a critical infrastructure to support reimbursement, decision-support and data analysis. The problem is that physicians do not think and work using reference terminologies. Interface terminologies bridge the gap between information that is in the physician's mind and information that can be interpreted by computer applications. They interface between the users and the standard reference terminologies required by clinical information systems. Interface term...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: MIE
• Authors: Andrew S. Kanter, Amy Y. Wang, Fred E. Masarie Jr., Frank Naeymi-Rad, Charles Safran
• Keywords: Clinical Information, Healthcare, Interface Terminologies, MIE 2008, Reference Terminologies