LAUSR

C LINICALLY, IT IS easy to understand the need for sharable and comparable data. For example, patients may visit multiple providers within the areas they live, work, and visit. To have the complete picture of their health, clinicians need data from all those clinical encounters. At the most basic level, clinicians use electronic health records (EHRs) to view their patients’ clinical information and document care. EHRs can also be used to share data about clinical effectiveness, benchmarking, value-based care, quality improvement, and research. Clinicians need a well-designed data sharing system to ensure that fall risk or pain scores captured at one institution mean the same thing at another. Achieving this level of meaningful data sharing requires the use of standardized terminologies and information models, which are agreed-upon concepts for assessments, nursing diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes.1 This article examines standardized terminologies, discusses how information models can be used to improve clinical practice, and describes an ambitious initiative to create nurse-sensitive information models.