HIQA has published an updated version of the Guidance on Terminology Standards for Ireland. Terminology standards, which are a fundamental part of any eHealth ecosystem, ensure that healthcare systems understand and use data in the same way. The purpose of this guidance published today is to provide direction on terminology standards in Ireland. Based on a review of international and national best practice, this guidance provides the eHealth community in Ireland with the direction of terminology development that HIQA endorses.

HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards Rachel Flynn said: “The use of terminology standards can improve the quality of data in health and social care information systems. For patients and clinicians there can be improvements in the accuracy and validity of information in medical records. This can enable decision support systems which check the record and provide real-time advice to clinicians when, for example, prescribing medications for a patient, thus ensuring safer better healthcare for patients”

This guidance is being developed to inform key stakeholders such as public and private service users, vendors, purchasers and implementers of health information systems, healthcare providers, the wider health informatics community and any other interested parties, about the proposed future direction of terminology standards in Ireland, and to encourage wider participation in standards development.

Ms Flynn continued: “Safe, reliable healthcare depends on access to and use of information that is accurate, relevant, legible and complete. Terminology standards also support the safe exchange of health information between healthcare professions, thereby ensuring the right information is available to treating healthcare professionals. This will help patients to get the correct treatment at the appropriate time.”

ENDS

For further information contact:

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA, 01 814 7480 / 086 2447 623, mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to the editor

• The Guidance on Terminology Standards for Ireland can be found at www.hiqa.ie.
• This guidance document form part of HIQA’s work through its health information function to ensure that high quality health and social care information is available to support the delivery of care to patients in a timely manner and in planning and monitoring of services throughout Ireland.
• The guidance document supports the delivery of the eHealth Strategy for Ireland and the programmes of work being developed by eHealth Ireland.
• This document is a revision of the original Guidance on Classification and Terminology Standards, published by HIQA in 2013.
• The document reflects changes to international terminology standards and a significant change at national level, specifically, the purchase of a national Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) licence for Ireland.
• The changes reflected in the document include the Fifth Edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) International Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10), which was published in 2016. Furthermore, the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Disease (ICD-11) is being trialled extensively ahead of scheduled formal adoption by the WHO in May 2018. In addition, Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) version 2.59 was released in February 2017.
• The guidance is targeted principally at those involved in specifying the requirements for, and the development and implementation of, new health information systems and eHealth applications, both locally and nationally.