MedlinePlus Connect
MedlinePlus® Connect is a free, value-added service that allows electronic health records (EHRs) to link to current, authoritative, patient information available from the MedlinePlus® Web site. MedlinePlus®, developed and maintained by the National Library of Medicine, is a consumer health information site for patients, families, and health care providers that is composed of patient-focused materials about diseases, conditions, medications, and general health and wellness issues. Using MedlinePlus® Connect may benefit some health care providers by achieving one of the criteria for Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology.
MedlinePlus® Connect accept requests for information based on standard diagnosis/problem codes and medications. Health topics in MedlinePlus® are mapped to two standard coding systems: ICD-9-CM and SNOMED CT Core Problem List Subset. The user of the EHR submits a request for information based on one of the supported diagnosis/problem codes. MedlinePlus® Connect then matches the code with the most relevant health topic in MedlinePlus®, and the patient-friendly information is sent back to the EHR. MedlinePlus® Connect will retrieve up to three health topics for each submitted diagnosis/problem code. At the current time information requests in both English and Spanish are supported.
In addition to accessing information on hundreds of health topics, MedlinePlus® Connect can also retrieve medication information that is written specifically for patients. Two systems of medication codes are used and supported by MedlinePlus® Connect: RXCUI (RxNorm Concept Unique Identifier) and NDC (National Drug Code). The drug information retrieved by MedlinePlus® Connect comes from the publication, AHFS Consumer Medication Information, which is licensed for use on MedlinePlus® from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, ASHP, Inc. Currently only English language drug information is supported.
On the technical side, the application program interface for MedlinePlus® Connect is compliant with the HL7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval (Infobutton) Knowledge Request URL-Based Implementation specification. A flexible and customizable EHR that allows links to be added to the system is needed for implementing this service. There are no licensing or registration requirements for using MedlinePlus® Connect. Specific technical details are available from the MedlinePlus® Connect: Technical Information page, and for those interested in learning more about this service, there is an email discussion list.
Future enhancements of MedlinePlus® Connect include adding laboratory test responses, and support for an XML-based Web service.
Links and References:
MedlinePlus® Connect: Overview
MedlinePlus® Connect: Demonstration Page
MedlinePlus® Connect: Technical Information
MedlinePlus® Connect: Email List
Submitted by Kim Granath
