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B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology Value Set

Last updated on July 5, 2024

The Ministry of Health (“the Ministry”) and health authorities jointly developed a Medical Imaging Database (MID) to capture, analyze, and report data collected by the health authorities during the provision of publicly-funded medical imaging services. Prior to the development of the MID, there was no established provincial standard for medical imaging procedure codes and nomenclature (i.e. exam names). Health authorities were using their own exam dictionaries that may not have been consistent with exam dictionaries in other health authorities. Disparate systems, processes, codes, and nomenclature hinders the consistency, timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of reporting on medical imaging activities (i.e. exam volumes and wait times) to the Ministry. Sharing this information enables the Ministry and the health authorities to receive timely, accurate, and comprehensive data for all medical imaging modalities, which in turn allows for opportunities to provide an array of analyses and improvements to various aspects of the healthcare system.

Scope

The scope of this user reference is to build an understanding of the various procedure codes, as well as the exam names available in the B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology reference set that will facilitate future mapping to SNOMED terms. 

Governance

The B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology Value Set is governed by the provincial Digital Health Standards Office (DHSO).

Current Status

The current version of the B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology Value Set and associated document materials are available for download. For any inquiries related to the published B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology Value Set, please email the Health Information Standards team at  HLTH.HISSupport@gov.bc.ca. 

As of June 2024, an updated version is in draft and undergoing clinical review for the mapping of SNOMED terms. 

Maintenance

The B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology Value Set is based on the Clinical & Systems Transformation (CST) Cerner Medical Imaging Order Catalogue at Vancouver Coastal Health, the Provincial Health Services Authority and Providence Health Care. Changes to the value set are dependent on updates to the CST Cerner Medical Imaging Order Catalogue. 

Significant analysis and review of documents and specifications were undertaken to ensure that the standards developed would be applicable and attainable to the various stakeholder groups.

Wherever possible, content templates defined and reviewed by standards bodies were referenced, and appropriate constraints for the B.C. context applied.

The content of the standard and any future updates may require post-production edits, additions and/or maintenance to address issues identified by technical validation. Additional adjustments may be required over time to reflect requirements in B.C. or to align with emerging pan-Canadian standards developments.  

Download

  1. Download the B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology User Reference Guide (PDF, 268 KB).

  2. Download the B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology Master Exam Code Mapping (Excel, 929 KB).

  3. Download the B.C. Medical Imaging Terminology SNOMED Mapping (Excel, 170 KB).

This standard is considered stable and in use provincially within the health authorities. However, the accompanying SNOMED mapping is provided for implementer assistance and likely needs additional clinical review and validation before being considered stable for use in production.