Imagine you’ve written a story and you think it’s going to change the world. Everyone who reads your book is going to end up happier and healthier. So you want this story to be translated into a language that everyone around the world can understand.
A question
Would you sit down with a huge pile of dictionaries and independently translate your story? Would you work with translators? Or would you head straight to your editor to find out the easiest way?
Imagine your story is occupational therapy and you need to communicate what you have done, why you have done it and what happens as a result. The language you need is digital, but how can you use it to communicate your story?
Using translation services
The answer is SNOMED: your global digital dictionary for sharing world-changing occupational therapy stories. Occupational therapists all around the world use this dictionary. It’s already been embedded in electronic health and care records, and you may not even know it’s there unless you speak with a translator - a Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) - or you seek the opinion of your friendly editor (normally the Chief Information Officer or Head of Information Services) who can tell you about local digital working groups. These people can help you translate and share your amazing practice stories which change lives.
Every occupational therapist has a practice story to translate, and this normally starts with the purpose of occupational therapy (the reason for referral) right through to the state of play at discharge. If we don’t translate these key bits of information in a digital worldwide language (SNOMED), others won’t understand the story of occupational therapy, or even find it. Worse still, others might start rewriting your story before you get chance to publish it - and then nobody will hear about the value of occupational therapy.
Working with a translator sounds rather complicated, but they can help you devise “pick lists” which tag (using a SNOMED code) the important chapters of your story. These tags help others locate your story, and you can also use them to revisit your stories to find patterns which help you improve your practice (a bit like revising a book).
Other authors are doing it
I was recently talking to an author in accident and emergency who used to have no concrete information about why people were attending. The author started tagging the purpose of visits alongside the interventions offered, using SNOMED. This has helped them develop their service so that common visiting purposes are dealt with consistently in a hub, freeing up clinician time to focus on less common purposes.
How you can get started
Does it sound like this might work for your service? How easy do you find it to inform your commissioners about why people access occupational therapy? Well, SNOMED can make it a whole lot easier, and if you get your whole team doing it, it will be even better - no more manual audits! And the story of occupational therapy can be shared more easily.
Occupational therapy can seem like the most secret story book in the world, but it shouldn’t be! Let’s use SNOMED as our launch pad to share what we do with a worldwide audience - it’s a great opportunity for us.
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If you’re an independent translator trying to digitise your story |
Get in touch with others who have done it. There are some exercises you can go through such as generating a team “glossary” of useful SNOMED terms for common stories. Working with other services who have embedded SNOMED will help you learn the quick routes to success, as well as the pitfalls. |
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If you’re part of a local translation service |
Track down your local digital champion, such as your CCIO, and start telling them your story. They can help you get started with tagging and structuring your story in the context of your organisation. |
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If you’re heading to the editors office with ambitious ideas….. |
Think about how you want to tell your story, and others you work with who add to the story. With many occupational therapists recording their stories in multiple systems, we need more expert “bilingual” occupational therapists who can champion integrated health and care records. |
Suzy England is a Professional Advisor in Health Informatics at RCOT and is ready to support all authors with their story-writing adventures.