Task Force Works Toward Electronic Anesthesia Record

A task force of US anesthesiologists and manufacturers of anesthesia information-
management systems are seeking to create a data dictionary, a common set of data elements required in an electronic anesthesia record.

The ultimate goal is to improve patient safety, says the US Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF), which is supporting the Data Dictionary Task Force (DDTF) along with companies such as Draeger Medical, Picis, Inc., Deio, Inc., GE Medical Systems, and Philips Medical Systems. The DDTF will focus initially on leveraging existing standards and lexicons, as well as comparing data elements from installed clinical information systems to determine common terms. Its objectives are to identify the specific perioperative outcomes that should be investigated and the important questions in anesthesia that should be asked and answered through data collection and analysis in order to achieve the greatest patient benefit.

"Paper-based medical records do not facilitate the reliable and efficient transfer of medical information between health-care facilities and providers,” said Terri G. Monk, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at the University of Florida (Gainesville, USA) and the leader of the task force. "Computer-based patient records provide better interfaces between clinical data and health-care providers.”




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Univ. of Florida