IHTSDO Conference and Showcase October 2011 a success
The biannual conference of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO® ) was recently held in Sydney, Australia, from 10–14 October 2011. A showcase component has been added to the October conferences, so the regular working meetings were accompanied by an implementation showcase with a number of Australian and international presenters.
NEHTA provided significant input and logistical support to the organisation of this successful conference, which enhanced NEHTA's leadership role in the international health informatics community. The conference was attended by Australian IHTSDO Committee Representatives and NEHTA staff, from the Clinical Terminologies and Information team.
Conference
The working meetings provided an opportunity for those involved in IHTSDO work to meet face-to-face for longer sessions than is feasible for late-night or early morning teleconferences, helping to develop international relationships and progress collaborative efforts.
The IHTSDO governance bodies and committees met as did a majority of the working groups. Some areas of work (progressed and/or reported on) as well as items of interest include:
• Collaborative development of the international release. (SNOMED CT® AU includes the international release.)
• Anatomy hierarchy remodelling. (This is anticipated to have a positive impact on quality of diseases and procedure content.)
• Consultant Terminologist (intern) capacity building programme.
• Core competencies for those working with SNOMED CT®.
• IHTSDO Quality Assurance Framework development.
• FP/GP reference set and mapping project.
• SNOMED CT to ICD-10 mapping project.
• Harmonisation efforts with external terminologies.
• Pharmacy: medicinal product identification, dose forms project, international pharmacy boundary model work.
• IHTSDO Workbench activities including authoring work.
• Plans for additional supporting material and guidance on implementing SNOMED CT in clinical systems.
• Implementers/curriculum development.
An IHTSDO conference report will shortly be released by NEHTA and will be available on the NEHTA website.
IHTSDO working groups are generally open and welcome new members so if you would like to contribute to IHTSDO work please see http://www.ihtsdo.org/join-us/help-improve-snomed-ct/
Showcase
The showcase was held on the last two days of the event. It included a range of presentations, education sessions, display booths and posters on offer covering:
• implementation planning and considerations;
• experiences in implementation an Australian level;
• experiences in implementation at an international level;
• IHTSDO updates, guidance and support;
• reference sets;
• SNOMED CT education;
• workbench sessions; and
• information and implementation sessions from the Australian Clinical Terminology Users Group.
The IHTSDO has provided materials from the sessions for those who may be interested see http://www.ihtsdo.org/publications/conferences/#c2105
About IHTSDO
The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation is an international not-for-profit organization based in Denmark. IHTSDO acquires, owns and administers the rights to SNOMED CT and other health terminologies and related standards.
http://www.ihtsdo.org/about-ihtsdo/