mitchell@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Philip Mitchel) (02/01/91)
Hello kind lady or gentleman...here I come with my electronic hat in
hand, begging data. First, let me tell you my sad story. I'm building
a patient database for research purposes, and need to track such things
as occupation, medication, diagnosis, and procedures performed. I know
that lists of these things and associated codes exist 'out there'. I
have been steered toward CPT codes for procedures, ICD-9 codes for
diagnoses, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles for same, and the
Physicians' Desk Reference for drugs. My first question is:
Is the information in these lists copyrighted, or just the
books in which they appear?
This is an important legal question, because my next question is:
Can someone out there send me an ascii file of one or all of
these lists?
Obviously, if the answer to the first question is 'the info ain't free',
then the answer to the second is NO, NO, A THOUSAND TIMES NO!! I quite
agree, and will vehemently dispose of any ill-gotten data. However, if
the data itself is public domain (as I have been assured CPT codes are),
then I would love to have copies of said info. Enough. If you have the
electronic form and can in good conscience forward it, I would be most
grateful. MUST I BEG !!?! Oh...all right. Pleasepleaseplease!
Thank you.
--
Phil Mitchell mitchell@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu
"The opinions expressed are my own. In fact, I'm not even sure what I said."sean@dsl.pitt.edu (Sean McLinden) (02/06/91)
In article <4621@lib.tmc.edu> mitchell@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Philip Mitchel) writes: >Hello kind lady or gentleman...here I come with my electronic hat in >hand, begging data. First, let me tell you my sad story. I'm building >a patient database for research purposes, and need to track such things >as occupation, medication, diagnosis, and procedures performed. I know >that lists of these things and associated codes exist 'out there'. I >have been steered toward CPT codes for procedures, ICD-9 codes for >diagnoses, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles for same, and the >Physicians' Desk Reference for drugs. My first question is: > > Is the information in these lists copyrighted, or just the > books in which they appear? > >This is an important legal question, because my next question is: > > Can someone out there send me an ascii file of one or all of > these lists? > >Obviously, if the answer to the first question is 'the info ain't free', >then the answer to the second is NO, NO, A THOUSAND TIMES NO!! I quite >agree, and will vehemently dispose of any ill-gotten data. However, if >the data itself is public domain (as I have been assured CPT codes are), >then I would love to have copies of said info. Enough. If you have the >electronic form and can in good conscience forward it, I would be most >grateful. MUST I BEG !!?! Oh...all right. Pleasepleaseplease! Strictly speaking ICD-9-CM (you don't *really* want ICD-9) and CPT-4 are not in the public domain, but they can be used freely. You can buy CPT-4 codes in electronic format from the AMA, and I am sure that you can get ICD-9 from your university hospital since almost everyone is required to submit certain discharge data electonically. The Physician's Desk Reference is copyrighted. You can buy the information on CD-ROM but you can't use it except for personal purposes, without permission. You probably don't want it, anyway, since the United States Pharmacopea numbers (USP) and such *can* be used, freely, and can be gotten from the government. If you want electronic format you will most likely have to pay for it from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) which manages the USG's databases. What you pay is a media, distribution cost, not a royalty. For Occupational Titles, you might want to try the Census Bureau, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, or the Health Care Finance Administration to see what they use. Any information that they require for coding of patient data is probably not restricted. The Social Sercurity Administration and, of course, the Internal Revenue Service are other likely sources of information. If you find any of these and are free to distribute them, please let me know as I am sure that others might find them useful. Sean McLinden Decision Systems Laboratory University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
morris@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Ted Morris) (02/13/91)
You may also want to look into the Meta-1 thesaurus project from the National Library of Medicine (Contact person: Betsy Humphreys). We're starting some projects with this cross-referenced thesaurus (ICD-9, MESH terms and tree numbers, SNOMED codes, etc.) to help augment search and retrieval results from a patient information database ourselves! Theodore Allan Morris, U. Cincinnati, Med Ctr Info & Comm, Info Rsrch & Dev, 231 Bethesda Av, ML#574, Cinti, OH 45267-0574, 513-558-6046V, 513-558-0758F, MORRISTA@UCMCIC.OA.UC.EDU / MORRISTA@UCUNIX.SAN.UC.EDU, NTS WB8VNV, AppleLink U1091 | Call me up and I'll talk data to ya!