WONCA and International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation deliver collaborative products

PRESS RELEASE

Close coordination will facilitate adoption of standards-based healthcare implementation internationally

Bangkok, Thailand; Copenhagen, Denmark – 30 September 2015.

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) are pleased to announce the release of the General Practitioner/ Family Practitioner Reasons for Encounter/ Health Issues (GP/FP) subset and the map from the GP/FP subset to the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). WONCA and IHTSDO signed an agreement to collaborate in 2009 to promote cooperation between the two organizations. The agreement contained a commitment to map relevant content in SNOMED CT to the ICPC-2 for the benefit of users worldwide.

The GP/FP Subset and ICPC-2 map were developed between 2010 and 2013 by the International Family Practice/General Practice Special Interest Group (SIG), and the subsets were first released for review in April 2014. Changes to the structure of the subsets were made following feedback, and we are now pleased to announce that the SNOMED CT subset is being released along with the map to ICPC-2. The GP/FP Subset and map to ICPC-2 will be updated with each release of the SNOMED CT International Release.

The GP/FP subset contains SNOMED CT concepts focused on reasons for encounter and health issues. This increases the usefulness of SNOMED CT for General Practitioners and Family Practitioners because it targets high usage concepts from electronic records. ICPC-2 is a classification designed for use in general/family practice around the world. ICPC-2 is developed and maintained by the WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC), representing members from almost 30 countries.
 
SNOMED CT, a multidisciplinary international healthcare terminology, is designed to support the entry and retrieval of clinical concepts in electronic record systems and the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information.

Access
Access within IHTSDO member countries is provided by the Member National Release Centre in each country, via the relevant Member web page. Affiliates of IHTSDO in non- member countries can access the release files through their MLDS account (Member Licensing and Distribution Service) – www.mlds.ihtsdotools.org. Please contact info@ihtsdo.org for more information if required.

About WONCA

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) is a not-for-profit organization and was founded in 1972 by member organizations in 18 countries. WONCA now has 131 Member Organizations in over 140 countries and territories with membership of about 500,000 family doctors and more than 90 per cent of the world’s population. WONCA represents and acts as an advocate for its constituent members at an international level where it interacts with world bodies such as the World Health Organization.

About IHTSDO

The IHTSDO (International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation) and its Members seek to improve the health of humankind by fostering the development and use of suitable standardized clinical terminologies, notably SNOMED CT, in order to support the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information. The IHTSDO is an international organization, established as a Danish not-for-profit association. (www.ihtsdo.org).

For further information, please contact:

IHTSDO: info@ihtsdo.org
Tel: +45 31585100

WONCA: manager@wonca.net
Tel: +66 2 6379010