Role: Medical Coder
Provided data fields have been configured for medical coding via MedDRA and WHO Drug dictionaries, data collected against those fields becomes eligible for coding in the Medical Coding > Data module. Here, ClinSpark provides an opportunity to auto-code terms by looking for a best match in the respective dictionary or the opportunity to manually code each term by browsing the dictionary tree. If collected data is updated after initial coding has occurred, the user is prompted to re-code the updated term.
Algorithm Details
ClinSpark has a built-in feature designed to streamline “Medical Term” coding. This feature allow an employee to find a matching term in the corresponding Medical Dictionary automatically. In some dictionaries medical terms can be located in different layers (example would be different ATC levels) and in different paths (example would be different drug names designations, i.e. trade name vs generic name). This article explain how auto-coding works and the algorithm behind confidence level calculations.
MedDRA
For this dictionary we only search against LLT, but we perform search in three different ways relaxing search contains more and more and thus lowering confidence level.
Confidence | Search Target | Search Match | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
50% | LLT | Partial Match on first part of the term | Influenza B → Influenza |
75% | LLT | Partial Match on entire term | Influen → Influenza |
100% | LLT | Full Match on entire term | Influenza → Influenza |
LLT* = Lowest Level Term
Example with full match:
Example with partial match:
WHO Drug
For this dictionary we do not calculate confidence level, and instead we allow an employee to select best option from the drop down list of matching items. We use the following sequence of searches to build a list of matching items:
Priority | Search Target | Search Match | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Any Drug Name (Generics and Non Generics) | Full Match | Remicade → Remicade |
2 | Any Drug Name (Generics and Non Generics) | Partial Match | Remi → Remicade, Infliximab |
Example with full match in Generic and Trade names:
Example of multiple matches of the same drug bound to a different placers with in ATC ontology:
