Classifications and terminologies public resources

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New releases

National community services data dictionary, version 5 (21 July 2008)

National health (version 14) and national community services (version 5) data dictionaries CD-ROM set (21 July 2008)

National health data dictionary version 14 (21 July 2008)

A guide to data development (27 February 2007)

Popular titles

Australia's health 2008
Australia's health 2008		 Australia's welfare 2007
Australia's welfare 2007

This page provides a list of papers and useful links to documents and websites that are relevant to Classifications and Terminologies.

Web sites

Documents

Representing thoughts, words and things in the UMLS (165 KB .pdf). K. Campbell, D. Oliver, K. Spackman and E. Shortliffe. 1998

The authors describe a framework, based on the Ogden-Richards semiotic triangle, for understanding the relationship between the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) and the source terminologies from which the UMLS derives its content. They pay particular attention to UMLS's Concept Unique Identifier (CUI) and the sense of 'meaning' it represents as contrasted with the sense of 'meaning' represented by the source terminologies. The CUI takes on emergent meaning through linkage to terms in different terminology systems. In some cases, a CUI's emergent meaning can differ significantly from the original sources' intended meanings of terms linked by that CUI. Identification of these different senses of meaning within the UMLS is consistent with historical themes of semantic interpretation of language.

Australian Family of Health and Related Classifications (390KB .doc)

Details the principles for inclusion in the Australian Family of Health and Related Classifications. This paper provides guidance to those wishing to propose a classification for inclusion in the Australian Family of Health and Related Classifications.

Australian Pathology Code Lists -  Includes: 

Request Codes: The principal purpose of this code set is: to provide a common set of request codes that can be used by software manufacturers in building systems for the electronic ordering of pathology. Secondary purposes are: To provide a reference terminology that can be used for the coding of pathology requests for research. To provide a maintained list of "abbreviations" able to be used on pathology accounts to meet the requirement of the Australian Health Insurance Act in the identification of the billed procedure.

Report Codes: An agreed subset of LOINC (Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes).

ICPC-2 International Classification of Primary Care - summary. WONCA International Classifications Committee

2 Page summary of ICPC-2 codes used by GP's internationally to code directly. 

Introduction of a Clinical Terminology in the Netherlands (912 KB Zipped .pdf) Needs, Constraints, Opportunities. NICTIZ (Nationaal ICT Instituut in de Zorg). September 2003

The main objective of this study was to answer the question 'Is it sensible to aim for a national introduction of SNOMED-CT, and if so for which sectors of Healthcare?' The secondary questions were on alternatives and an estimate of costs involved.
The conclusion on SNOMED is that, though it is the leading candidate to become a defacto global standard, it has not yet reached sufficient maturity.
Further recommendations are included.

National Coroners Information System as an information tool for injury surveillance  

This report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the National Coroners Information System (NCIS), particularly in terms of its coverage and data integrity and in supporting injury prevention initiatives, primarily by comparing it to the ABS Deaths Data Collection. Specific injury topic areas are considered to aid this assessment, but the focus is on illustrating the functions of the NCIS rather than providing a comprehensive description of the topic area.
The NCIS was found to be potentially very useful for injury prevention purposes because of the considerable detail available in the coded and text variables and in the attached text documents. However, there are still a number of limitations that need to be addressed.

Rural, Regional and Remote Health: A Guide to Remoteness Classifications AIHW

This publication reviews the methodology behind the three major classifications that describe areas in this way - the RRMA (Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas) classification, the ARIA (Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia) classification and the ASGC (Australian Standard Geographical Classification) Remoteness Areas classification.

SNOMED CT alpha trials: report from Australia (778 KB .ppt;382K PDF)

This PowerPoint presentation was prepared in October 2001 for the College of American Pathologists and outlines NCCH's mapping methodology concerns on the "cut-down" alpha version subset of SNOMED CT

UK-National Health Service, Information standards board

Assurance process 

US National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) (Website)

Letter to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 29 January 2004

Letter to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 5 November 2003

Patient Medical Record Information Terminology Analysis Reports, Prepared for the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics Subcommittee on Standards and Security, December 2002

WHO collaborating centre for the Family of International Classifications in the Netherlands, meeting papers 2003 

Several papers of interest are to be found on this page. For example, numbers: 

Last reviewed on 25 August 2004