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Methods Inf Med 1990; 29(03): 220-235
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634784
Epidemiology and Health Care
Schattauer GmbH

Converting the Representation of Medical Data: Criteria to Code the Underlying Cause of Death

D. M. Pisanelli
1   Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, CNR, Rome, Italy
,
A. Rossi-Mori
1   Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, CNR, Rome, Italy
› Author AffiliationsWe are particularly grateful to M. L. Fucci, formerly responsible for the ISTAT Department on Death Statistics, and to G. Feola, currently responsible, for their invaluable collaboration. The working group to produce the detailed lists and tables on the BKB features involved, besides the above mentioned, the authors, M. Riccardi (currently with CNR-ISRDS), E. Spa-ziani (ISTAT), A. Massarelli (Latium Health Authority), T. Loretucci, D. Micchia (Central Service for Health Planning, Ministry of Health). The prototype was implemented with P. Chiappetta (ITBM) and OER-Regione Lazio (S. Crollari, C. Tasco). We are particularly indebted to Gerald C. Sanders and all his staff at the Division of Data Processing of NCHS (D. Boesch, J. Scott, K. Lyndon, M. Burt) for having provided us all the necessary information on their computerized systems. A special thank should be given to Donna G. Patten of the Division of Vital Statistics of NCHS for the valuable support she gave to the implementation of our prototype.
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Publication History

Publication Date:
07 February 2018 (online)

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Abstract

This study deals with a set of coding directives that were conceived for trained coding clerks and rely upon knowledge of their cultural background. These directives were formalized and adapted for computer use and in this form must rely upon a background of explicit medical knowledge. Medical data on death certificates are an invaluable source of information regarding prevention of major causes of death. These causes are coded and tabulated worldwide by means of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD manual issues directives to achieve uniformity of coding throughout the world. The coder is required to trace back the flow of events which caused death and to single out the most significant concept from the statistical point of view. After emphasizing the problems encountered in the formalization, the methodological contribution of this work to the identification of a modular architecture for a system which represents and “reshapes” knowledge from medical documents is presented. Therefore we focus on the features of the two kinds of knowledge that must be supplied to a knowledge-based system, in order to enable it to perform semantic conversions on given medical data, namely: i) generic guidelines; ii) detailed medical knowledge.

Key-Words

Semantic Standards - Coding and Classification - ICD-9 - Decision Support Systems - Knowledge Bases - Causes of Death - Death Cer-tificates
 

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