Press Release
IMO Announces Enhanced ICD-9 Encoded Problem List Vocabulary
With Mapping To SNOMED® CT
04/05/2004
NORTHBROOK, IL, APRIL 5, 2004 - Intelligent Medical Objects, Inc. announced the availability in 2004 of its enhanced Personal Health Terminology™ (PHT) with mapping to SNOMED® CT. It provides a comprehensive map from ICD-9 to SNOMED® CT and has far-reaching implications for the codification of patient information and medical knowledge.
ICD-9-CM, the International Classification of Diseases Version 9 (Clinical Modification), is the most ubiquitous standard for diagnostic coding in the United States. Because it is one of the administrative dictionaries required for financial transactions, most medical providers are obliged to use ICD-9. Most legacy information systems contain ICD-9 coded data.
SNOMED® CT, the latest version of the SNOMED® vocabulary available from the College of American Pathologists, is a more robust terminology for disease classification and is more suitable for retrospective analysis of aggregated clinical information.
For the foreseeable future, both of these coding systems will be required by medical institutions that seek to be reimbursed by third parties and also codify their clinical encounter information for the long-term. The need to have both systems interoperate in a manner which maintains the ICD-9 regulatory updates while taking advantage of the enhanced modeling of SNOMED® CT was the impetus behind IMO's enhanced version of PHT.
Until now, a comprehensive mapping of detailed ICD-9 codes and concepts to SNOMED® CT has not been available. The new IMO mappings allow all medical institutions that have invested in SNOMED® CT coding of patient information to immediately integrate their clinical and financial systems, allowing patient encounters to be coded consistently with both coding systems. New users of SNOMED® CT can optimize their investment by tying their SNOMED® coding systems to their ICD-9 coding systems using the IMO mappings. Now that SNOMED® CT is licensed free of charge through the National Library of Medicine's UMLS (for U.S. users), the opportunity to codify patient information in the most appropriate manner is more affordable than ever before.
Frank Naeymi-Rad, Chairman and CEO of Intelligent Medical Objects, commented on these new developments. "IMO has invested heavily in the development of its enhanced disease vocabularies over the past eight years. With the emergence of SNOMED® CT as a terminology of choice, we are delighted to offer a product that bridges the SNOMED® terms with ICD-9. It's just another way that IMO brings value to modern medicine through its dedication to medical informatics."
Dr. Andrew S. Kanter, President and Chief Medical Officer of IMO reiterated, "IMO has dedicated itself to provide Personal Health Terminology with its ICD-9 and SNOMED® CT mapping on a regulatory schedule. IMO recognizes the need for institutions to maintain their mission-critical information stream, while moving towards enhanced data warehouse and decision support functions."
IMO has announced separately the availability of IMO® Medications Enhanced, a new and powerful knowledge source for drug information systems featuring NDC-coded knowledge based on the Lexi-Comp drug information system. This knowledge source is also mapped to IMO's PHT and when combined with the SNOMED-CT mappings, it is now possible to use SNOMED® CT for drug indications and contraindications in a single, powerful system.
IMO Personal Health Terminology™ is available in several different formats including ASCII files, Oracle database dumps, COM objects and DAT files and .NET web services, with and without the SNOMED CT mappings.
About Intelligent Medical Objects: IMO is a Chicago-based firm with a core team of medical doctors, software developers and engineers. IMO provides a wide variety of medical vocabulary products, develops applications and consults in an array of medical information systems areas, including Electronic Medical Records, Point-of-Care Applications supporting CPOE, and Knowledge Management Systems.