Keywords: Automated Coding - Mapping - SNOMEDCT - ICD10 - ICPC - ELGA-Tool
Setting:
Coding project for General and Family Medicine, Developing automated coding for GPs since 2022 in Lower Austria as a cooperating project within OEAGM and KLU
Target group:
All Health professionals
Description of the innovative practice or project:
The aim of this project is to establish the technical and scientific foundation for automated diagnostic coding in primary healthcare in Austria, which is so far based on the ICPC (International Classification of Primary Care) system, and to allow valid interchange methods between various classification systems. The intended application is to be user-friendly and, by using SNOMED-CT as unique identifier, meet future European-Health-Data-Space requirements, including the International Patient Summary (IPS). This is achieved by the SNOMED-CT based Austrian-Reference-Terminology (SNO_ART), a carefully curated mapping table between SNOMED-CT and ICD-10 and ICPC2/3 to facilitate data interoperability across national and international healthcare settings.
Evaluation:
Since June 2023, the KL-OEGAM-PrimaryCareCodes-Searchtool including the SNO_ART with 40 000 terms, has been publicly available on the server of Karl Landsteiner University, immediately aiding health care workers in their daily coding process. So far only Primary health care centers and few single- and group-GPs are using the Searchtool for their daily work. Evaluation is planned in cooperation within KLU and ELGA GmbH.
Next Steps:
Since September 2024, the application has been further developed for an Austria-wide rollout from 1 January 2026 in cooperation with ELGA GmbH. The complete ICD10 Mappings of SNOMED-CT will be implemented till 31.12.2025.
Lessons learned:
The need for standardized health data became even more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the deficiencies in traditional, uncodified text-based diagnoses in primary care. In conclusion, this new diagnostic coding tool significantly contributes to standardizing diagnosis documentation in the Austrian health care system. It not only enhances patient care and safety but also improves data quality for research and healthcare policy.
#20
EQuiP is open to both Individual and Organizational Memberships. EQuiP offers a platform to improve the knowledge base and to improve closer collaboration between GPs / Family Doctors, researchers, educators, policy makers and organisations involved in quality and safety in family medicine and primary care.
