Introduction
The health care terminologies, nomenclature, the coding systems and the classification systems are terms that are structured. These terms are used jointly plus their definitions describe clearly how the treatment and care of patients are provided. The terms include findings, diagnoses, diseases, administrative items, drugs, treatments, operations, among others. These can be done through electronic or paper medical record.
On the other hand, classification system is the systematic arrangement of effects into classes. The terminologies do not bear the sole breadth and depth representation of the wide spectrum of the health care knowledge. Therefore, a hub of non redundant and well integrated terminologies is required to be the basis of the healthcare information and safety systems for the patients. Thesauruses like MeSH are designed for indexing medical writing and support exploration over bibliographic databases (AHIMA, 2006). This requires detailed discussion and information on the healthcare terminologies.
Standards Bodies & Classification Systems
The use of the healthcare terms requires careful understanding of the terminologies. This calls for the knowledge of terminologies in classifying, describing, and coding of the medical concepts and terms. The use of the standardized healthcare terminologies aids in collecting the electronic data for the patients. This can also help in making clinical decisions, providing support to the patients, disease surveillance, patient safety, among other issues related to the field.
Of course, sole terminologies cannot provide the in-depth information about a particular disease or present the wide spectrum of healthcare knowledge. However, the knowledge of terminology is a must for everyone involved in the healthcare field, as this knowledge provides a basis for the healthcare information and it is required for the healthcare providers to offer quality services and safety systems for the patients. This makes the foundation of IT tools to be based on terminology and classification systems. These are the main healthcare languages that are used to describe and encode patient’s data like patient’s physical symptoms, signs, treatment plans, diagnoses, and medical sensitiveness (Margo, 2003).
The common classifications and terminologies used are the Systematized Nomenclature of Medical Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), and International Classification of Diseases (ICD). However, there are so many terminologies and classifications that exist and this has hindered the goals of IT in the health industry (Coiera, 2012). The selection and methodologies are meant to give familiar healthcare words needed for reporting. Nonetheless, the terminologies and classifications that exist are ineffective as they are uncoordinated in their release cycles, property licensing, fragmented governance, and they lack standards.
Comparison
The effect of the disarray has caused problems in the healthcare industry. This has barred the success of establishing a vocabulary standard that meets the contemporary and future healthcare requirements. This calls for the standardization of the terminologies and classifications of the healthcare systems. This will help in quality monitoring, support, and research in the field. The plan should incorporate the continually changing and dynamic field. Therefore, the terminologies and classifications should also be dynamic and react to the desires of the diverse stakeholders (Giannangelo & Kathy, 2007).
References
AMIA & AHIMA. (2006). Healthcare Terminologies and Classifications: An Action Agenda for the United States. Web.
Coiera E. (2012). Guide to Health Informatics (Second Edition). Web.
Giannangelo, K. E. & Kathy, C. (2007). Language Barrier: Getting Past the Classifications and Terminologies Roadblock: Journal of AHIMA 78(2), 44-48.
Margo, I. (2003). Mapping from a Clinical Terminology to a Classification. Web.