The Veteran's Administration (VA) has awarded a $100 million contract to J P systems to standardize medical terminologies.
The end goal is improved patient safety, according to a company release. "When doctors use standard terms, healthcare providers all over the world are better able to understand the details of patient records written by different doctors over many decades, even in different countries and languages. Continuity and accuracy count a great deal," the release said.
"People are dying because we don't use the same names for the same things," said Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research at Duke University Robert M. Califf, MD.
J P Systems aids data exchange by standardizing the contents of drop-down lists used during data entry. Beyond that, standards form the basis of continuity for reliable clinical research, public health and long-range planning activities.
The contract is a five-year roll-up of several existing contracts including Medical Terminology Standards Development, advanced modeling work, terminology matching, terminology consulting and maintenance of the National Drug File.
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Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.