Body language For Dr Charles Gutteridge, Clinical Engagement Lead at SNOMED CT, the safe, accurate and effective exchange of health information is an essential part of the foundation to improve global healthcare
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hen Dr Charles Gutteridge rearranged his consulting room so that patients could sit alongside him and look at their test results on a computer screen, the response was more than encouraging. “It was transformative,” he says. “Patients became engaged and invested in their own health. They felt represented electronically and empowered.” The veteran haematologist and specialist in clinical
informatics was immediately convinced of the power of sharing electronic medical data. For the past five years, Dr Gutteridge has been monitoring similar benefits in the expansion of SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive computable language of health for use in electronic health records. Standing for “Systemised Nomenclature Of Medicine”, it has been nearly two decades in development, with specialist programmers
and clinicians creating a vast dictionary of clinical vocabulary that stands to become the medical equivalent of Google’s codification of the English language. Since forming in 2007, the company has been operating as a non-profit organisation to prioritise the strategic development of this system to meet the healthcare sector’s needs. Now, simply by entering a code in an electronic health record, a doctor can bring optimal care to a patient by accessing test reminders, academic resources and everything else available on this global research system. With more than 350,000 medical concepts available, it offers an infinite amount of combinations to describe the human condition; which promises better health and improved patient outcomes.
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