THE MINIMAL STANDARD TERMINOLOGY FOR DIGESTIVE ENDOSCOPY - INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURED REPORTING

The wider use of computers for the management of endoscopic data and t he use of electronic endoscopes for the production of high quality end oscopic images has made the standardization of terminology and images formats necessary in digestive endoscopy reports. The European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American Society for Gastroint estinal Endoscopy have combined their efforts tg propose a Minimal Sta ndard Terminology for Computerized Databases in Endoscopy. This termin ology is based on the following principles: no term describing finding s less frequent than 1% of the daily practice, and no term based on su bjective impressions. The Minimal Standard Terminology has been develo ped according to the natural process of constructing an endoscopic rep ort in natural language and deals with the following: reasons for perf orming the examination, endoscopic findings, endoscopic diagnosis, add itional therapeutic and diagnosis procedures (biopsies, etc.). It is s ubdivided according to the main organs examined with an endoscopy. Unt il now, the Minimal Standard Terminology was tested in many centers an d was shown to accurately cover 95% of routine examinations for the up per gastrointestinal tract, colonoscopy and cholangio-pancreatography. It is currently being tested in an a prospective way in several cente rs in Europe (with a grant from the European Commission DGXIII-C4) and in the USA (with grant from the AHDHF). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ire land Ltd. All rights reserved.