Australian National Centre for Classification in Health Selects Apelon To Develop Next Generation Disease Classification System

Apelon assists in mission to advance ICD-10 AM for use in Australian health services

Ridgefield, CT-February 10, 2003-Apelon, Inc., supplier of healthcare terminology software and services, today announced that its Terminology Development Environment (TDE) has been licensed by the Australian National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH), to advance the ICD-10-AM classification system. The NCCH, funded to undertake this project by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, is evaluating Apelons Description Logic technology as a model to hold and maintain the ICD-10-AM classification and terminology. Australian healthcare organizations use ICD-10-AM to ensure accurate documentation of disease. ICD-10-AM is the Australian Modification of ICD-10, (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems), the World Health Organizations core disease classification system. ICD-10 and its derivatives are increasingly being used to encode health information around the world, including in the United States.

The NCCH is considered the Australian national authority on health classification and coding systems. Apelon will employ its TDE to develop an initial Description Logic-based model for ICD-10-AM, and subsequently assist the NCCH in the implementation of the model across ICD-10-AM. Apelons Description Logic is a principled model (or mathematical formalism) that facilitates the construction of accurate, highly-structured healthcare terminologies.

We are delighted to work with the NCCH on the evolution of ICD-10-AM," says Apelon President Stephen Coady. The availability of a highly structured classification system for national deployment will keep Australia at the forefront of evidence-based medicine."

Apelons TDE allows organizations to create, maintain, and deploy comprehensive terminologies. NCCH will deploy Apelons Description Logic based TDE to build a more formal ICD-10-AM classification system exposing the foundations of the ICD-10-AM terminology. This will assist organizations with their aggregation of data, associations with other clinical terminologies, and integration with clinical rules and guidelines.

Apelon's Description Logic technology is recognized as the gold standard for the development, maintenance and interrogation of healthcare terminologies.
Virtually all of the major content developers including Kaiser Permanente (Convergent Medical Terminology), The College for American Pathologists (SNOMED® CT) and The American Medical Association (CPT®) use Apelons description logic based tools.

Apelons model for ICD-10 AMs development is important to the Australian healthcare system because it will assist with the transition and translation between clinical terminology and health classification, particularly for acute care settings," says NCCH Director Associate Professor Rosemary Roberts.

About Apelon

Apelon is the largest supplier of medical terminology tools and services. Organizations use Apelon software to improve the quality, comparability and accessibility of clinical and other information. Apelon offers terminology development and maintenance software, run time vocabulary servers, and components for concept-based indexing, clinical guideline development, and code set management. Please visit www.Apelon.com for additional information.

About NCCH

The National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH) is the Australian center of excellence in health classification theory and an expert center in coding systems. The center is a collaboration between the Australian federal government, the University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology. It is dedicated to supporting NCCH clients in their use of health classifications and related products and services. The NCCH creates, maintains and publishes the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM), which is adapted from one of the World Health Organizations core classifications, ICD-10.

SNOMED is a registered trademark of the College of American Pathologists. ©2002 College of American Pathologists.

CPT is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association.