The LOINC RSNA radiology playbook - a unified terminology for radiology procedures.

Objective: This paper describes the unified LOINC/RSNA Radiology Playbook and the process by which it was produced.

Methods: The Regenstrief Institute and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) developed a unification plan consisting of six objectives 1) develop a unified model for radiology procedure names that represents the attributes with an extensible set of values, 2) transform existing LOINC procedure codes into the unified model representation, 3) create a mapping between all the attribute values used in the unified model as coded in LOINC (ie, LOINC Parts) and their equivalent concepts in RadLex, 4) create a mapping between the existing procedure codes in the RadLex Core Playbook and the corresponding codes in LOINC, 5) develop a single integrated governance process for managing the unified terminology, and 6) publicly distribute the terminology artifacts.

Results: We developed a unified model and instantiated it in a new LOINC release artifact that contains the LOINC codes and display name (ie LONG_COMMON_NAME) for each procedure, mappings between LOINC and the RSNA Playbook at the procedure code level, and connections between procedure terms and their attribute values that are expressed as LOINC Parts and RadLex IDs.

Use of Radiology Procedure Codes in Health Care: The Need for Standardization and Structure.

Radiology procedure codes are a fundamental part of most radiology workflows, such as ordering, scheduling, billing, and image interpretation. Nonstandardized unstructured procedure codes have typically been used in radiology departments. Such codes may be sufficient for specific purposes, but they offer limited support for interoperability.

Long-term population demography of Trillium recurvatum on loess bluffs in western Tennessee, USA.

Background And Aims: Understanding the demography of long-lived clonal herbs, with their extreme modularity, requires knowledge of both their short- and long-term survival and ramet growth patterns. The primary objective of this study was to understand the dynamics of a clonal forest herb, Trillium recurvatum, by examining temporal and small-scale demographic patterns. We hypothesized: (i) there would be more variability in the juvenile age class compared with non-flowering adult and flowering adult classes due to year-to-year fluctuations in recruitment; (ii) rates of population growth (λ) and increase (r) would be highest in non-flowering ramets due to a combination of transitions from the juvenile stage and reversions from flowering adults; and (iii) inter-ramet distances would be most variable between flowering and juvenile ramets due to a combination of clonal growth, seed dispersal by ants and ramet death over time.

Creating an ICNP subset: children with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

Since 1993, the International Classification of Nursing Practice has evolved as a unified language for global nursing diagnoses/outcomes and interventions. It contains 5148 terms. Population- or condition-specific subsets of terms facilitate easier and consistent use of the International Classification of Nursing Practice.

Reactions of nurses to the use of electronic health record alert features in an inpatient setting.

While studies have been conducted to assess nurse perception of electronic health records, once electronic health record systems are up and running, there is little to guide the use of features within the electronic health record for nursing practice. Alerts are a promising tool for implementing best practice for patient care in inpatient settings. Yet the use of alerts for inpatient nursing is understudied.

Attaching context sensitive infobuttons to an EHR options and issues.

Allina Hospitals & Clinics has implemented a fully integrated EHR. In the optimization of the EHR, they examined options for sharing the evidence base behind the content and presenting context sensitive answers to questions. After defining the evaluation criteria and options, they compared the options to the criteria.

Bridge building: linking nursing practice to the ICNP catalogue developing an ICNP catalogue for children with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

Over the past few decades much work has been done to develop nursing nomenclatures. One of these terminologies, the International Classification of Nursing Practice (R) (ICNP) is an international language to represent nursing problems, interventions, and outcomes. To facilitate use of the ICNP in practice, catalogue development is needed.

Native grasses as a management alternative on vegetated closure caps.

Capped waste sites often are vegetated with commercial turf grasses to increase evapotranspiration and prevent erosion and possible exposure of the barrier. Fertilizer, frequent watering, and mowing may be required to establish the turf grass and prevent invasion by trees and shrubs. Oldfield vegetation of grasses and forbs is a possible sustainable alternative to turf grass communities.

Early experiences in using computerized patient record data for monitoring charting compliance, supporting quality initiatives and assisting with accurate charging at Allina Hospitals & Clinics.

Allina Hospitals & Clinics has been an early adopter of electronic medical records in both their hospitals and clinics. This article describes some of the ways their hospitals monitor the quality of the data and adherence to documentation policies, as well as how they use the data from the computerized patient records for healthcare quality initiatives, medical research and support of accurate charging. A key feature of their work is real-time, on-demand reporting from any workstation.

Using electronic medical record data for clinical workflow and analysis: a single center experience.

This paper focuses on the use of data from an electronic medical record (EMR) within a multi-facility health care organization. It describes how health provider workflow is enhanced by extracting data from multiple sources in a near real-time fashion and presenting it to the user in ways that are unavailable in the electronic medical record applications.

Elemental composition of native wetland plants in constructed mesocosm treatment wetlands.

Plants that accumulate a small percentage of metals in constructed treatment wetlands can contribute to remediation of acidic, metal contaminated runoff waters from coal mines or processing areas. We examined root and shoot concentrations of elements in four perennial wetland species over two seasons in mesocosm wetland systems designed to remediate water from a coal pile runoff basin. Deep wetlands in each system contained Myriophyllum aquaticum and Nymphaea odorata; shallow wetlands contained Juncus effusus and Pontederia cordata.