Description
The American Medical Association’s (AMA) Current Procedure Terminology (CPT)[1] is the primary standard for categorizing healthcare services, from outpatient office visits and telephone calls, to inpatient rounding and surgery. The Category I CPT section consists of 9,314 5-digit numeric codes and descriptions structured in a flat, 2-level, hierarchy. This structure groups related procedures along one axis of description, typically a base procedure. Although closely-related procedures appear sequentially – e.g. knee replacement procedures – other groupings of procedures are difficult to identify – e.g. all major joint replacement procedures. Some of the most important questions about the operations of health institutions require grouping procedures around these broader dimensions of relationship.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the utility of applying descriptive concepts from the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terminology (SNOMED CT)[2] to CPT codes for improved relating of CPT codes along multiple dimensions of relationship. The intent is to (a.) provide a model for improving standardization of queries by health services researchers and health system operations officers, and (b.) to enable specialty-specific and appointment-specific views of patient health data.
REFERENCES
1. American Medical Association CPT: https://www.ama-assn.org/amaone/cpt-current-procedural-terminology
2. IHTSDO SNOMED CT 5-Step Briefing: http://www.snomed.org/snomed-ct/five-step-briefing
3. IHTSDO SNOMED CT Browser: https://browser.ihtsdotools.org/
Learning Objective: Understand the general structure and limitations of CPT, and how augmentation of CPT codes with SNOMED concepts can add value -- specifically, how the SNOMED concepts can (1.) standardize health services research queries, and (2.) allow for specialty-specific and appointment-specific views of patients' EHR data.
Authors:
Norman Stone (Presenter)
DoD/VA Interagency Program Office
Carol Bean, DoD/VA Interagency Program Office
Thomas Neal, DoD/VA Interagency Program Office
Karl Stiller, U.S. Food & Drug Administration
David Schmidt, Veterans Affairs
Andrew Holdaway, US Dept of Defense
Lauren Thompson, DoD/VA Interagency Program Office
Presentation Materials: