Research Interests

 In particular, he is focused on:

The use of standardized clinical vocabularies to support electronic health information exchange

Investigation of medical informatics applications to improve healthcare delivery and research

Creation, Maintenance and Distribution of Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC®)

Summary

LOINC® (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) is a universal code system for identifying laboratory and clinical observations that facilitates exchange and pooling of results for clinical care, research, outcomes management, and many other purposes. When used in conjunction with messaging standards such as HL7, LOINC’s universal observation identifiers can be an essential ingredient for combining test results, measurements, and other observations from many sources.

The worldwide LOINC community presently has more than 13,000 users in 143 countries, and continues to grow rapidly with about 14 new users added daily. 

This project is focused on the creation, maintenance, and distribution of the LOINC vocabulary.

• http://loinc.org
  

Publications

• Vreeman, DJ, McDonald, CJ, and Huff, SM (2010).
  LOINC®: a universal catalogue of individual clinical observations and uniform representation of enumerated collections
  Int. J. of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine, 3(4):273-291.
• Vreeman, DJ, McDonald, CJ, and Huff, SM (2010).
  Representing Patient Assessments in LOINC(R).
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 2010:832-6.
• McDonald, CJ, Huff, SM, Mercer, K, Hernandez, JA, and Vreeman, DJ (2010).
  Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes (LOINC®) User’s Guide
  Indianapolis, IN, June 2010 ed.
• Vreeman, DJ (2010).
  Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes (LOINC®)
  In: Healthcare Code Sets, Clinical Terminologies, and Classification Systems., ed. by Giannagelo K. American Health Information Management Association, Chicago, IL, chap. 10, pp. 151-164. (ISBN: 9781584262251).
• Lin, MC, Vreeman, DJ, McDonald, CJ, and Huff, SM (2010).
  A Characterization of Local LOINC Mapping for Laboratory Tests in Three Large Institutions.
  Methods Inf Med, 49(5). 

• Grannis, S and Vreeman, DJ (2010).
  A vision of the journey ahead: using public health notifiable condition mapping to illustrate the need to maintain value sets.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 2010:261-5.

• Lin, M, Vreeman, DJ, McDonald, CJ, and Huff, SM (2010).
  Correctness of Voluntary LOINC Mapping for Laboratory Tests in Three Large Institutions.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 2010:447-51.

Automated Mapping of Local Clinical and Laboratory Terms to LOINC

Summary

The goal of anywhere, anytime medical information exchange is impeded by the plethora of local conventions for identifying health data in separate electronic systems. Mapping local terms to a standardized vocabulary such as LOINC bridges the many islands of health data that exists and facilitates data aggregation. But, mapping terms is a complex, labor-intensive process. Automating the process of mapping local terms to LOINC has the potential to improve the efficiency and consistency of the mapping process.

Publications

• Lin, MC, Vreeman, DJ, McDonald, CJ, and Huff, SM (2010).
  A Characterization of Local LOINC Mapping for Laboratory Tests in Three Large Institutions.
  Methods Inf Med, 49(5).
• Vreeman, DJ, Finnell, JT, and Overhage, JM (2007).
  A rationale for parsimonious laboratory term mapping by frequency.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc:771-5.
• Vreeman, DJ and McDonald, CJ (2005).
  Automated mapping of local radiology terms to LOINC.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc:769-73.
• Vreeman, DJ and McDonald, CJ (2006).
  A comparison of Intelligent Mapper and document similarity scores for mapping local radiology terms to LOINC.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc:809-13.

Use of Controlled Vocabularies to Support Electronic Health Information Exchange

Summary

Interoperable health information exchange is hindered by the myriad idiosyncratic conventions for identifying similar data in separate electronic systems. Clinicians, administrators, and researchers all need a complete set of clinical information, coalesced from all of the various sources that produce health data. Mapping local observation codes to a universal, controlled terminology provides a bridge across those islands of data, yet this work is challenging and resource intensive. The goal of this work is describe and understand the challenges and develop tools to overcome them.

Funding Sources

• None

Publications

• Vreeman, DJ (2006).
  Maintaining mappings from source systems in a local health information infrastructure.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc:1131.

• Vreeman, DJ, Stark, M, Tomashefski, GL, Phillips, DR, and Dexter, PR (2008).
  Embracing change in a health information exchange.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc:768-72.

• Vreeman, DJ (2007).
  Keeping up with changing source system terms in a local health information infrastructure: running to stand still.
  Stud Health Technol Inform, 129(Pt 1):775-9.

• Vreeman, DJ, Finnell, JT, and Overhage, JM (2007).
  A rationale for parsimonious laboratory term mapping by frequency.
  AMIA Annu Symp Proc:771-5.

Evidence for Electronic Health Record Systems in Physical Therapy

Summary

With burgeoning pressures to better manage clinical information through information technology, this project sought to investigate the role of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in physical therapist practice. This project identified, reviewed, and summarized the benefits, barriers, and key factors for success in implementing EHRs in physical therapist practice.

Publications

• Vreeman, DJ, Taggard, SL, Rhine, MD, and Worrell, TW (2006).
  Evidence for electronic health record systems in physical therapy.
  Phys Ther, 86(3):434-46; discussion 446-9.
• Vreeman, DJ (2006).
  A Physical Therapist’s Guide to the National Health Information Network
  PT Magazine, 16(4):28-33.

• Vreeman, DJ (2004).
  Why Life is Hard - Challenges in Conducting Research On Information Technology
  HPA Resource, 4(4):11-13.

• Vreeman, DJ (2004).
  Medical Informatics – An Important Field You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
  HPA Resource, 4(3):1,3-5.