Mortality Medical Data System
Encyclopedia
The Mortality Medical Data System (MMDS) is used to automate the entry, classification, and retrieval of cause-of-death information reported on death certificate
s throughout the United States
and in many other countries. The National Center for Health Statistics
(NCHS) began the system's development in 1967.
The system has facilitated the standardization of mortality information within the United States, and ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the underlying cause of death from multiple conditions listed on a death certificate. (Johansson & Westerling 2002:302)
The Automated Classification of Medical Entities program automates the underlying cause-of-death coding rules. The input to ACME is the multiple cause-of-death codes (ICD
) assigned to each entity (e.g., disease condition, accident, or injury) listed on cause-of-death certifications, preserving the location and order as reported by the certifier. ACME then applies the World Health Organization
(WHO) rules to the ICD
codes and selects an underlying cause of death. ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the underlying cause of death. (Johansson & Westerling 2002:302)
. TRANSAX creates the data necessary for person-based tabulations by translating the axis of classification from an entity basis to a record basis.
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
s throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and in many other countries. The National Center for Health Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics is a division of the United States federal agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . As such, NCHS is under the United States Department of Health and Human Services...
(NCHS) began the system's development in 1967.
The system has facilitated the standardization of mortality information within the United States, and ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the underlying cause of death from multiple conditions listed on a death certificate. (Johansson & Westerling 2002:302)
System Components
The MMDS system consists of the following components, and is itself part of the National Vital Statistics System.MICAR
There are two Mortality Medical Indexing, Classification, and Retrieval components.- SuperMICAR automates the MICAR data entry process. This program is designed as an enhancement of the earlier PC-MICAR Data Entry program. Super-MICAR is designed to automatically encode cause-of-death data into numeric entity reference numbers.
- MICAR200 automates the multiple cause coding rules and assigns International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health ProblemsICDThe International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is a medical classification that provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease...
(ICD) codes to each numeric entity reference number.
ACME
The Automated Classification of Medical Entities program automates the underlying cause-of-death coding rules. The input to ACME is the multiple cause-of-death codes (ICD
ICD
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is a medical classification that provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease...
) assigned to each entity (e.g., disease condition, accident, or injury) listed on cause-of-death certifications, preserving the location and order as reported by the certifier. ACME then applies the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
(WHO) rules to the ICD
ICD
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is a medical classification that provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease...
codes and selects an underlying cause of death. ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the underlying cause of death. (Johansson & Westerling 2002:302)
TRANSAX
The TRANSlation of Axis program converts the ACME output data into fixed format and translates the data into a more desirable statistical form using the linkage provisions of the ICDICD
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is a medical classification that provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease...
. TRANSAX creates the data necessary for person-based tabulations by translating the axis of classification from an entity basis to a record basis.
See also
- Vital statisticsVital statisticsVital statistics are the information maintained by a government, recording the birth and death of individuals within that government's jurisdiction. These data are used by public health programs to evaluate how effective their programs are...
- Nosology
- International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems