Experiences in aligning WHO SMART guidelines to classification and terminology standards.

OBJECTIVES: Digital adaptation kits (DAKs) distill WHO guidelines for digital use by representing them as workflows, data dictionaries and decision support tables. This paper aims to highlight key lessons learnt in coding data elements of the antenatal care (ANC) and family planning DAKs to standardised classifications and terminologies (CATs). METHODS: We encoded data elements within the ANC and family planning DAKs to standardised CATs from the WHO CATs and other freely available CATs. RESULTS: The coding process demonstrated approaches to refine the data dictionaries and enhance alignment between data elements and CATs. DISCUSSION: Applying CATs to WHO clinical and public health guidelines can ensure that recommendations are operationalised in a digital system with appropriate consistency and clarity. This requires a multidisciplinary team and careful review to achieve conceptual equivalence between data elements and standardised terminologies. CONCLUSION: The systematic translation of guidelines into digital systems provides an opportunity for leveraging CATs; however, this approach needs further exploration into its implementation in country contexts and transition into machine-readable components.

Eight years of ICF in Italy: principles, results and future perspectives.

PURPOSE: To report on the process of implementation and dissemination of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) [1] in Italy. METHODS: The Agenzia Regionale della Sanità of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (ARSFVG) is a WHO Collaborating Centre for the Family of International Classifications. It collaborated with Italian research institutions such as the C. Besta Neurological Institute IRCCS Foundation, the Medea Institute, and the National Institute of Statistics in revising, field testing and validating the ICF in Italy and in the preparation of ICF-CY (Children and Youth Version). RESULTS: The value of ICF profiles in defining personalised programmes of interventions was explored by evaluating the link between ICF items and the UN Convention, which was taken as a criterion of clear ethical and political orientation in the evaluation of the disability condition. The first and main effort of ICF implementation was directed in the field of public health and welfare policies. Two main nationwide projects were launched: ICF and the labour polices in 2003 and ICF and the disability certification reforms in 2006. ICF also received a strong attention by the professional working in the school system, and was used to define the functioning profile of children and to establish personalised educational programmes. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of ICF in Italy was strongly facilitated by a favourable cultural and scientific context.

Integrating research into policy planning: MHADIE policy recommendations.

MHADIE project (Measuring Health and Disability in Europe: Supporting policy development) aimed at developing realistic, evidence-based and effective national policies for persons with disabilities. A preliminary step towards this goal was the demonstration on the feasibility of employing the ICF in clinical, educational and statistical fields, which corresponds to the recognised need to enhance the European Union's capacity of analysis of disability, as highlighted in its Disability Action Plan 2006-2007. The ultimate outcome of the project is the production of 13 policy recommendations, dealing with statistics clinical and educational areas, and four general policy recommendations focusing on: (a) the need of coordinating and integrating disability conceptualization at all policy levels and across sectors; (b) the need of conducting longitudinal cohort studies which include children aged 0-6; (c) the need of reviewing transportation policies in light of the requirements of persons with disabilities; (d) the need of reviewing all disability policies to emphasise and support the role of the family, which is a consistent and substantial environmental facilitator in the lives of persons with disabilities.