Once a record - from any language- has had a partial or complete transfer to or SNOMED codes, or addition of representative SNOMED codes, the record becomes truly international as the codes are in one universal language.
It is possible, I believe, for artificial intelligence to convert free text into SNOMED codes.
Codes that become irrelevant (say a patient that is no longer pregnant) or wrong ( say a changed diagnosis ' perhaps breathlessness that has been rediagnosed from heart failure to respiratory failure) can be inactivated but left in the digital audit trail.
These codes can be made available for reuse along patients' varied clinical care pathways at varied clinical service provision sites if sharing , consent, and information governance agreements and practices are in place to allow the data to be shared across the care pathways.
It is increasingly common to utilise codes within a patients' records to direct appropriate code specific educational and health promotional information to appropriate coded patients.
The use of the UK coded GP lifelong digital record for inviting patients for covid vaccinations was a great example. At the start of the covid vaccination campaign, patients of a certain age and with certain conditions ( heart disease, respiratory disease, immune defficiency were identified from the national digital lifelong record and digitally messaged.
The NHS 2002 Emergency COPI Act was invoked to facilitate the use of the personal data in order to implement the vaccination program. The COPI *** rules are still in place.
*** Controls of Patient Information
HIFA profile: Richard Fitton is a retired family doctor - GP. Professional interests: Health literacy, patient partnership of trust and implementation of healthcare with professionals, family and public involvement in the prevention of modern lifestyle diseases, patients using access to professional records to overcome confidentiality barriers to care, patients as part of the policing of the use of their patient data
Email address: richardpeterfitton7 AT gmail.com
