Terminology Harmonization in Exercise Medicine and Exercise Science (THEMES) brings together translational investigators from six CTSAs to build an interoperable set of data and terminology standards that has the potential to transform clinical research and clinical practice using exercise biomarkers and exercise as therapy.
The lack of harmonized concepts, standardized terminologies, and accepted approaches for data interoperability have impeded the use of physical activity and exercise biomarkers across a wide spectrum of human disease. For the past two years, with funding from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science through the Clinical Translational Science Award at the University of California at Irvine, we have convened a group of internationally respected clinicians and scientists and partnered with one of the most prominent data standards organizations in the world, Health Level 7 International (HL7). We have produced a set of documents to be reviewed by HL7 that address key issues of terminology harmonization and data flow. The HL7 process is highly transparent and inclusive. Its membership (consisting of clinicians, informatics scientists, health care policy leaders, and experts in the electronic health record (EHR)) are asked to review, comment, and then vote, on our proposal. Our vision is to create a set of terminologies and data procedures with robust credibility that, ultimately, will fully integrate cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) into the EHR and clinical trials, thereby contributing to a learning health system.
For more information about the THEMES project please contact Adrijana Gombosev; agombose@uci.edu
