Patient Informatics

14. Considerations for (future) research – labelling and identification of relevant examinations

As with the 1958 and 1967 influenza outbreaks, retrospective research activity on the COVID-19 outbreak will be extensive. All healthcare institutions can be responsive and assist with this by ensuring that examinations and the surrounding data can be accessible in a timely manner, meets regulations and maintains patient confidentiality. Use of standardised terminology (such as the internationally designed SNOMED-CT nomenclature or other national coding scheme should be used if the resources are available. If there is the ability to label or mark key images on the storage system this should be used in a standardised manner – consulting with not only internal users, but surrounding hospitals too will help with this.