Both Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News are reporting on: ‘The Health and Human Services Department will license a medical vocabulary system [SNOMED] from the College of American Pathologists as a step toward establishing a common medical language.
HHS secretary Tommy Thompson today announced the license, along with a plan to have the Institute of Medicine design a standard electronic health record. The new standard tools will be ready next year, he said.
HHS will make both the medical definitions system and the standard electronic health record available free to the nation�s health care providers and carriers…’ HL7 has been asked to review the plan. It will be interesting to see what impact this has. Thanks to David Derauf for the tip on this one.