MEDCIN, a system of standardized medical terminology

Medical terminology

Medical terminology is a vocabulary for accurately describing the human body and associated components, conditions, processes and process in a science-based manner. Some examples are: R.I.C.E., trapezius, and latissimus dorsi. It is to be used in the medical and nursing fields...

, is a proprietary medical vocabulary and was developed by Medicomp Systems, Inc. MEDCIN is a point-of-care terminology, intended for use in Electronic Health Record

Electronic Health Record

An electronic health record is an evolving concept defined as a systematic collection of electronic health information about individual patients or populations...

 (EHR) systems.

Developed by Medicomp Systems, it includes over 250,000 clinical data elements encompassing symptoms, history, physical examination, tests, diagnoses and therapy. This clinical vocabulary contains over 26 years of research and development as well as the capability to cross map to leading codification systems such as SNOMED, CPT

Current Procedural Terminology

The Current Procedural Terminology code set is maintained by the American Medical Association through the CPT Editorial Panel. The CPT code set describes medical, surgical, and diagnostic services and is designed to communicate uniform information about medical services and procedures among...

, ICD, DSM, GSM and LOINC

LOINC

Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes is a database and universal standard for identifying medical laboratory observations. It was developed and is maintained by the Regenstrief Institute, a US non-profit medical research organization, in 1994...

. The MEDCIN coding system is touted especially for point-of-care documentation and architecture. Several Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems embed MEDCIN, which allows them to produce structured and numerically codified patient charts. Such structuring enables the aggregation, analysis, and mining of clinical and practice management data related to a disease, a patient or a population.

Sample Computer Applications Using MEDCIN

• Electronic Medical Records
• Sage Intergy EHR
• Origin Healthcare Solutions, EMRge
• Computerized Physician Order Entry
  Computer physician order entry
  Computerized physician order entry is a process of electronic entry of medical practitioner instructions for the treatment of patients under his or her care...
  
   (e.g. E-Prescribing or Laboratory Order Entry)
• Emergency Room Charting
• MedcomSoft Record

See also

• Clinical Care Classification System
  Clinical Care Classification System
  Clinical Care Classification SystemThe Clinical Care Classification System is a standardized, coded nursing terminology that identifies the discrete elements of nursing practice...
  
  
• Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)
  Current Procedural Terminology
  The Current Procedural Terminology code set is maintained by the American Medical Association through the CPT Editorial Panel. The CPT code set describes medical, surgical, and diagnostic services and is designed to communicate uniform information about medical services and procedures among...
  
  
• International Classification of Diseases Revision 9 (ICD-9)
• LOINC
  LOINC
  Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes is a database and universal standard for identifying medical laboratory observations. It was developed and is maintained by the Regenstrief Institute, a US non-profit medical research organization, in 1994...
  
  
• National Drug Code (NDC)
  National Drug Code
  The National Drug Code is a unique product identifier used in the United States for drugs intended for human use. The Drug Listing Act of 1972 requires registered drug establishments to provide the Food and Drug Administration with a current list of all drugs manufactured, prepared, propagated,...
  
  
• SNOMED
• Health Level 7 (HL7)
• Health informatics
  Health informatics
  .Health informatics is a discipline at the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care...
  
  

Further reading

• Goltra, Peter S. MEDCIN: A New Nomenclature for Clinical Medicine. Ann Arbour, MI 1997:Springer-Verlag ISBN 0-387-94953-4.