The International Council of Nurses has teamed up with the International Healthcare Terminology Standards Development Organisation to advance the use of standardised terminology and interoperability in healthcare IT.
The collaboration will see ICN actively work with the IHTSDO to facilitate involvement of the nursing community through the IHTSDO Nursing Special Interest Group.
David Benton, chief executive of ICN said: “ICN will embrace this collaboration as an important means of supporting nurses in providing quality care.
“Nurses need to be able to access and share patient information in a standard way, to ensure safety, improve quality of care across the healthcare delivery system and communicate with other healthcare professionals.”
ICN, an organisation of more than 130 nurses associations worldwide, already develops the International Classification for Nursing Practice, while Danish organisation, IHTSDO, develop and promote SNOMED CT.
The organisations say that the agreement compliments their aims and will prevent gaps and overlaps in standardising terminology.
Jennifer Zelmer, chief executive officer of IHTSDO said: “IHTSDO welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with international nursing organisations to ensure that clinical terminologies respond to the needs of nurses, who are the largest health profession.
“We share the goal of having terminologies working effectively together in computer systems that support patient care and other applications.”
Link: IHTSDO