Development Principles

1. PHIN Vocabulary Background Industry standard vocabularies are a critical part of ensuring interoperability among public health systems. These vocabularies are also critical in ensuring that public health systems can work with health care, environmental, homeland defense and other external systems and networks. Using, developing, and distributing standardized vocabularies is a key strategy for the Public Health Information Network (PHIN). PHIN uses vocabularies in standard reference tables, message implementation guides and data models as an important component of the PHIN architecture and as a major consideration in PHIN certification. Purpose If information is to be aggregated, searched, synthesized, or shared efficiently and effectively, consistent vocabulary standards must be fostered and implemented. PHIN vocabulary initiatives and projects are designed to foster the use of industry standard vocabularies, to address cross-cutting needs, as well as to meet specific programmatic requirements at the local, state, and national levels. These initiatives and projects are designed to serve the ultimate goal of providing timely public health information to all who need it. PHIN Vocabulary Development Principles PHIN advances the use of standard vocabularies by working with Standards Development Organizations to ensure that public health needs are represented in industry standard vocabularies, by identifying relevant portions of these terminologies to meet specific public health systems needs, by developing tools and approaches to facilitate and encourage standard vocabulary usage and by using them in systems that we build. PHIN has developed processes and a technical infrastructure for distributing vocabulary to users at all geographic levels: local, state, and national. PHIN vocabulary development involves participation by a wide range of programs and people, with input from subject matter experts, vocabulary specialists and information system developers. May, 2005

2. PHIN Vocabulary • Core Components • Taxonomy of vocabulary domains used by PHIN - Each PHIN vocabulary domain identifies compliant vocabulary standards (e.g., SNOMED, LOINC) for specifying vocabulary domain concepts. • Vocabulary Access and Distribution System (PHIN VADS) - This web-based application provides a repository for storing, browsing, searching and downloading PHIN vocabularies. • The Controlled Health Thesaurus of public health concepts – This public health view of pertinent concepts from the National Library of Medicine’s Metathesarus is a polyhierarchical thesaurus that defines concepts, provides synonyms and conceptual relationships between them, and maps concepts to standard vocabularies. • PHIN Vocabulary Metadata – These metadata specifications are for using standard vocabularies to describe textual information in content management and web provisioning situations. • Future Plans • Making a greater variety of PHIN vocabularies available through PHIN VADS. • Expanding PHIN vocabulary domains to encompass a broader cross section of Public Health areas of interest. • Increasing collaboration with PHIN partners and stakeholders in the development and use of vocabulary standards. • Improving PHIN vocabularies to better utilize appropriate vocabulary standards and easing the transition to those standards. • Developing more robust search and retrieval capabilities within PHIN VADS. • Continuing development of the Controlled Health Thesaurus, with expansion to include concepts for public health domains not adequately covered in current standard vocabularies. Key Contact Information Name: Mamie J. Bell, Technical Lead National Center for Public Health Informatics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Email:mbell1@cdc.gov PHIN VS Email: PHINVS@cdc.gov Website:www.cdc.gov/phin/vocabulary PHIN Helpdesk: 800-532-9929 • Vocabulary and PHIN • Vocabulary is an integral part of PHIN and a key component in developing and deploying standards-based public health information systems. PHIN Vocabulary supports numerous PHIN functions including: • The automated exchange of data between public health partners. • The use of electronic clinical data for event detection. • Specimen and lab result information management and exchange. • Analysis of Public health data. • Public health information dissemination and alerting. May, 2005