Media that facilitate transportability of pertinent information concerning patient's illness across varied providers and geographic locations. Some versions include direct linkages to online consumer health information that is relevant to the health conditions and treatments related to a specific patient.

Computer-based systems for input, storage, display, retrieval, and printing of information contained in a patient's medical record.

Longitudinal patient-maintained records of individual health history and tools that allow individual control of access.

Public Law No: 111-5, enacted February 2009, makes supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for fiscal year ending September 30, 2009.

Using certified ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS technology to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce HEALTHCARE DISPARITIES; engage patients and families in their health care; improve care coordination; improve population and public health; while maintaining privacy and security.

The broad dissemination of new ideas, procedures, techniques, materials, and devices and the degree to which these are accepted and used.

Protective measures against unauthorized access to or interference with computer operating systems, telecommunications, or data structures, especially the modification, deletion, destruction, or release of data in computers. It includes methods of forestalling interference by computer viruses or so-called computer hackers aiming to compromise stored data.

The field of information science concerned with the analysis and dissemination of medical data through the application of computers to various aspects of health care and medicine.

The freedom of patients to review their own medical, genetic, or other health-related records.

The attitude and behavior associated with an individual using the computer.

Information systems, usually computer-assisted, designed to store, manipulate, and retrieve information for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling administrative activities associated with the provision and utilization of ambulatory care services and facilities.

Computer-based information systems used to integrate clinical and patient information and provide support for decision-making in patient care.

The creation and maintenance of medical and vital records in multiple institutions in a manner that will facilitate the combined use of the records of identified individuals.

The procedures involved in combining separately developed modules, components, or subsystems so that they work together as a complete system. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed)

The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure.

Data collected during dental examination for the purpose of study, diagnosis, or treatment planning.

Process of substituting a symbol or code for a term such as a diagnosis or procedure. (from Slee's Health Care Terms, 3d ed.)

Care which provides integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. (JAMA 1995;273(3):192)

Systematic organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of specialized information, especially of a scientific or technical nature (From ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, 1983). It often involves authenticating or validating information.

The organization and operation of the business aspects of a physician's practice.

Information systems, usually computer-assisted, that enable providers to initiate medical procedures, prescribe medications, etc. These systems support medical decision-making and error-reduction during patient care.

Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care.

The capacity of an organization, institution, or business to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of energy, time, money, personnel, materiel, etc.

Data recorded by nurses concerning the nursing care given to the patient, including judgment of the patient's progress.

The levels of excellence which characterize the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality.

A management function in which standards and guidelines are developed for the development, maintenance, and handling of forms and records.

Those actions designed to carry out recommendations pertaining to health plans or programs.

Description of pattern of recurrent functions or procedures frequently found in organizational processes, such as notification, decision, and action.

The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.

Controlled vocabulary of clinical terms produced by the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO).

Recording of pertinent information concerning patient's illness or illnesses.

The level of health of the individual, group, or population as subjectively assessed by the individual or by more objective measures.

Use of sophisticated analysis tools to sort through, organize, examine, and combine large sets of information.

Any group of three or more full-time physicians organized in a legally recognized entity for the provision of health care services, sharing space, equipment, personnel and records for both patient care and business management, and who have a predetermined arrangement for the distribution of income.

Integrated, computer-assisted systems designed to store, manipulate, and retrieve information concerned with the administrative and clinical aspects of providing medical services within the hospital.

A scheme which provides reimbursement for the health services rendered, generally by an institution, and which provides added financial rewards if certain conditions are met. Such a scheme is intended to promote and reward increased efficiency and cost containment, with better care, or at least without adverse effect on the quality of the care rendered.

Organized activities related to the storage, location, search, and retrieval of information.

The room or rooms in which the physician and staff provide patient care. The offices include all rooms in the physician's office suite.

The use of COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS to store and transmit medical PRESCRIPTIONS.

Referral by physicians to testing or treatment facilities in which they have financial interest. The practice is regulated by the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act of 1989.

The systematic application of information and computer sciences to public health practice, research, and learning.

A specified list of terms with a fixed and unalterable meaning, and from which a selection is made when CATALOGING; ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING; or searching BOOKS; JOURNALS AS TOPIC; and other documents. The control is intended to avoid the scattering of related subjects under different headings (SUBJECT HEADINGS). The list may be altered or extended only by the publisher or issuing agency. (From Harrod's Librarians' Glossary, 7th ed, p163)

The state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed, 1993)

The construction or arrangement of a task so that it may be done with the greatest possible efficiency.

Management of the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information. (From Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, 1994)

Descriptions and evaluations of specific health care organizations.

Institutional systems consisting of more than one health facility which have cooperative administrative arrangements through merger, affiliation, shared services, or other collective ventures.

Branch of medicine concerned with the prevention and control of disease and disability, and the promotion of physical and mental health of the population on the international, national, state, or municipal level.

Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.

Computer processing of a language with rules that reflect and describe current usage rather than prescribed usage.

Conduct and synthesis of systematic research comparing interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions. The purpose of this research is to inform patients, providers, and decision-makers, responding to their expressed needs, about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances. (hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cer/draftdefinition.html accessed 6/12/2009)

Integrated set of files, procedures, and equipment for the storage, manipulation, and retrieval of information.

Public Law 104-91 enacted in 1996, was designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system, protect health insurance coverage for workers and their families, and to protect individual personal health information.

The terms, expressions, designations, or symbols used in a particular science, discipline, or specialized subject area.

Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services.

Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.

Individuals licensed to practice medicine.

The portion of an interactive computer program that issues messages to and receives commands from a user.

An American National Standards Institute-accredited organization working on specifications to support development and advancement of clinical and administrative standards for healthcare.

A standardized nomenclature for clinical drugs and drug delivery devices. It links its names to many of the drug vocabularies commonly used in pharmacy management.

A health care system which combines physicians, hospitals, and other medical services with a health plan to provide the complete spectrum of medical care for its customers. In a fully integrated system, the three key elements - physicians, hospital, and health plan membership - are in balance in terms of matching medical resources with the needs of purchasers and patients. (Coddington et al., Integrated Health Care: Reorganizing the Physician, Hospital and Health Plan Relationship, 1994, p7)

The circulation or wide dispersal of information.

The observation and analysis of movements in a task with an emphasis on the amount of time required to perform the task.

Health care services provided to patients on an ambulatory basis, rather than by admission to a hospital or other health care facility. The services may be a part of a hospital, augmenting its inpatient services, or may be provided at a free-standing facility.

Introduction of changes which are new to the organization and are created by management.

Activities and programs intended to assure or improve the quality of care in either a defined medical setting or a program. The concept includes the assessment or evaluation of the quality of care; identification of problems or shortcomings in the delivery of care; designing activities to overcome these deficiencies; and follow-up monitoring to ensure effectiveness of corrective steps.

Management of the acquisition, organization, retrieval, and dissemination of health information.

A system of record keeping in which a list of the patient's problems is made and all history, physical findings, laboratory data, etc. pertinent to each problem are placed under that heading.

Exploitation through misrepresentation of the facts or concealment of the purposes of the exploiter.

Design of patient care wherein institutional resources and personnel are organized around patients rather than around specialized departments. (From Hospitals 1993 Feb 5;67(3):14)

Patterns of practice related to diagnosis and treatment as especially influenced by cost of the service requested and provided.

Spread and adoption of inventions and techniques from one geographic area to another, from one discipline to another, or from one sector of the economy to another. For example, improvements in medical equipment may be transferred from industrial countries to developing countries, advances arising from aerospace engineering may be applied to equipment for persons with disabilities, and innovations in science arising from government research are made available to private enterprise.

The detection of long and short term side effects of conventional and traditional medicines through research, data mining, monitoring, and evaluation of healthcare information obtained from healthcare providers and patients.

The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic, and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use, and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output, and outcome. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)

Process of teaching a person to interact and communicate with a computer.

Examination of the mouth and teeth toward the identification and diagnosis of intraoral disease or manifestation of non-oral conditions.

The sum total of nursing activities which includes assessment (identifying needs), intervention (ministering to needs), and evaluation (validating the effectiveness of the help given).

Individual's rights to obtain and use information collected or generated by others.

A professional society in the United States whose membership is composed of hospitals.

A systematic collection of factual data pertaining to health and disease in a human population within a given geographic area.

The attainment or process of attaining a new level of performance or quality.

Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.

Systems used to prompt or aid the memory. The systems can be computerized reminders, color coding, telephone calls, or devices such as letters and postcards.

Encouraging consumer behaviors most likely to optimize health potentials (physical and psychosocial) through health information, preventive programs, and access to medical care.

Organized procedures for establishing patient identity, including use of bracelets, etc.

Facilities which administer the delivery of health care services to people living in a community or neighborhood.

Uniform method for health care providers and medical suppliers to report professional services, procedures, and supplies. It consists of alphanumeric codes and modifiers for the use of all public and private health insurers. It is developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A medical specialty concerned with maintaining health and providing medical care to children from birth to adolescence.

Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976)

Efforts to reduce risk, to address and reduce incidents and accidents that may negatively impact healthcare consumers.

Providers of initial care for patients. These PHYSICIANS refer patients when appropriate for secondary or specialist care.

Descriptive terms and identifying codes for reporting medical services and procedures performed by PHYSICIANS. It is produced by the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION and used in insurance claim reporting for MEDICARE; MEDICAID; and private health insurance programs (From CPT 2002).

Compliance with a set of standards defined by non-governmental organizations. Certification is applied for by individuals on a voluntary basis and represents a professional status when achieved, e.g., certification for a medical specialty.

The state wherein the person is well adjusted.

Individuals professionally qualified in the management of patients' records. Duties may include planning, designing, and managing systems for patient administrative and clinical data, as well as patient medical records. The concept includes medical record technicians.

Sequential operating programs and data which instruct the functioning of a digital computer.

Software used to locate data or information stored in machine-readable form locally or at a distance such as an INTERNET site.

Messages between computer users via COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS. This feature duplicates most of the features of paper mail, such as forwarding, multiple copies, and attachments of images and other file types, but with a speed advantage. The term also refers to an individual message sent in this way.

Adjunctive computer programs in providing drug treatment to patients.

Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of facts and data garnered from material of a specialized subject area and made available for analysis and application. The collection can be automated by various contemporary methods for retrieval. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, BIBLIOGRAPHIC which is restricted to collections of bibliographic references.

The state of the organism when it functions optimally without evidence of disease.

A cabinet department in the Executive Branch of the United States Government concerned with overall planning, promoting, and administering programs pertaining to VETERANS. It was established March 15, 1989 as a Cabinet-level position.

Research aimed at assessing the quality and effectiveness of health care as measured by the attainment of a specified end result or outcome. Measures include parameters such as improved health, lowered morbidity or mortality, and improvement of abnormal states (such as elevated blood pressure).

A loose confederation of computer communication networks around the world. The networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the US Government ARPAnet project and was designed to facilitate information exchange.

Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.

A legal concept for individuals who are designated to act on behalf of persons who are considered incapable of acting in their own behalf, e.g., minors and persons found to be not mentally competent.

The transferring of patient care responsibility from one health-care professional to another.

Component of the NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. It conducts and supports research into the mapping of the human genome and other organism genomes. The National Center for Human Genome Research was established in 1989 and re-named the National Human Genome Research Institute in 1997.

Methods for quantitatively assessing and measuring interpersonal and group relationships.

Medical complexes consisting of medical school, hospitals, clinics, libraries, administrative facilities, etc.

The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others.

A system containing any combination of computers, computer terminals, printers, audio or visual display devices, or telephones interconnected by telecommunications equipment or cables: used to transmit or receive information. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)

Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.

Long-term care facilities which provide supervision and assistance in activities of daily living with medical and nursing services when required.

The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).

Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive health services provided for individuals in the community.

Management of the internal organization of the hospital.

Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with LONGITUDINAL STUDIES which are followed over a period of time.

For-profit enterprise with relatively few to moderate number of employees and low to moderate volume of sales.

Norms, criteria, standards, and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determining the quality of health care.

The legal relation between an entity (individual, group, corporation, or-profit, secular, government) and an object. The object may be corporeal, such as equipment, or completely a creature of law, such as a patent; it may be movable, such as an animal, or immovable, such as a building.

A heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by HYPERGLYCEMIA and GLUCOSE INTOLERANCE.

Public or private organizations that provide, either directly or through arrangements with other organizations, home health services in the patient's home. (Hospital Administration Terminology, 2d ed)

Planning for needed health and/or welfare services and facilities.

Those facilities which administer health services to individuals who do not require hospitalization or institutionalization.

Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)

Coordination of activities and programs among health care institutions within defined geographic areas for the purpose of improving delivery and quality of medical care to the patients. These programs are mandated under U.S. Public Law 89-239.

Behaviors expressed by individuals to protect, maintain or promote their health status. For example, proper diet, and appropriate exercise are activities perceived to influence health status. Life style is closely associated with health behavior and factors influencing life style are socioeconomic, educational, and cultural.

The protection of genetic information about an individual, family, or population group, from unauthorized disclosure.

Automated systems applied to the patient care process including diagnosis, therapy, and systems of communicating medical data within the health care setting.

Terms or expressions which provide the major means of access by subject to the bibliographic unit.

Customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a benefit or service received.

Therapeutic approach tailoring therapy for genetically defined subgroups of patients.

Management review designed to evaluate efficiency and to identify areas in need of management improvement within the institution in order to ensure effectiveness in meeting organizational goals.

Health care provided on a continuing basis from the initial contact, following the patient through all phases of medical care.

Computer programs or software installed on mobile electronic devices which support a wide range of functions and uses which include television, telephone, video, music, word processing, and Internet service.

A system of categories to which morbid entries are assigned according to established criteria. Included is the entire range of conditions in a manageable number of categories, grouped to facilitate mortality reporting. It is produced by the World Health Organization (From ICD-10, p1). The Clinical Modifications, produced by the UNITED STATES DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, are larger extensions used for morbidity and general epidemiological purposes, primarily in the U.S.

Errors or mistakes committed by health professionals which result in harm to the patient. They include errors in diagnosis (DIAGNOSTIC ERRORS), errors in the administration of drugs and other medications (MEDICATION ERRORS), errors in the performance of surgical procedures, in the use of other types of therapy, in the use of equipment, and in the interpretation of laboratory findings. Medical errors are differentiated from MALPRACTICE in that the former are regarded as honest mistakes or accidents while the latter is the result of negligence, reprehensible ignorance, or criminal intent.

Data processing largely performed by automatic means.

A procedure consisting of a sequence of algebraic formulas and/or logical steps to calculate or determine a given task.

Specific languages used to prepare computer programs.

The application of computer and information sciences to improve dental practice, research, education and management.

Collections of facts, assumptions, beliefs, and heuristics that are used in combination with databases to achieve desired results, such as a diagnosis, an interpretation, or a solution to a problem (From McGraw Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed).

Specifications and instructions applied to the software.

Hospital department responsible for the purchasing of supplies and equipment.

Organized systems for providing comprehensive prepaid health care that have five basic attributes: (1) provide care in a defined geographic area; (2) provide or ensure delivery of an agreed-upon set of basic and supplemental health maintenance and treatment services; (3) provide care to a voluntarily enrolled group of persons; (4) require their enrollees to use the services of designated providers; and (5) receive reimbursement through a predetermined, fixed, periodic prepayment made by the enrollee without regard to the degree of services provided. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)

Health services required by a population or community as well as the health services that the population or community is able and willing to pay for.

Services for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and the maintenance of health.

The application of discoveries generated by laboratory research and preclinical studies to the development of clinical trials and studies in humans. A second area of translational research concerns enhancing the adoption of best practices.

Insurance providing coverage of medical, surgical, or hospital care in general or for which there is no specific heading.

Payment by a third-party payer in a sum equal to the amount expended by a health care provider or facility for health services rendered to an insured or program beneficiary. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)

Conversations with an individual or individuals held in order to obtain information about their background and other personal biographical data, their attitudes and opinions, etc. It includes school admission or job interviews.

Information systems, usually computer-assisted, designed to store, manipulate, and retrieve information for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling administrative and clinical activities associated with the provision and utilization of clinical laboratory services.

A broad approach to appropriate coordination of the entire disease treatment process that often involves shifting away from more expensive inpatient and acute care to areas such as preventive medicine, patient counseling and education, and outpatient care. This concept includes implications of appropriate versus inappropriate therapy on the overall cost and clinical outcome of a particular disease. (From Hosp Pharm 1995 Jul;30(7):596)

The concept pertaining to the health status of inhabitants of the world.

Outside services provided to an institution under a formal financial agreement.

Ongoing scrutiny of a population (general population, study population, target population, etc.), generally using methods distinguished by their practicability, uniformity, and frequently their rapidity, rather than by complete accuracy.

Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.

Planning and control of time to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Research that involves the application of the natural sciences, especially biology and physiology, to medicine.

The level of governmental organization and function at the national or country-wide level.

Theoretical representations and constructs that describe or explain the structure and hierarchy of relationships and interactions within or between formal organizational entities or informal social groups.

Facilities where dental care is provided to patients.

Evaluation procedures that focus on both the outcome or status (OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT) of the patient at the end of an episode of care - presence of symptoms, level of activity, and mortality; and the process (ASSESSMENT, PROCESS) - what is done for the patient diagnostically and therapeutically.

The commitment in writing, as authentic evidence, of something having legal importance. The concept includes certificates of birth, death, etc., as well as hospital, medical, and other institutional records.

Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).

The seeking and acceptance by patients of health service.

A vocabulary database of universal identifiers for laboratory and clinical test results. Its purpose is to facilitate the exchange and pooling of results for clinical care, outcomes management, and research. It is produced by the Regenstrief Institute. (LOINC and RELMA [Internet]. Indianapolis: The Regenstrief Institute; c1995-2001 [cited 2002 Apr 2]. Available from http://www.regenstrief.org/loinc)

The optimal state of the mouth and normal functioning of the organs of the mouth without evidence of disease.

Generating, planning, organizing, and administering medical and nursing care and services for patients.

Care of patients by a multidisciplinary team usually organized under the leadership of a physician; each member of the team has specific responsibilities and the whole team contributes to the care of the patient.

Education that increases the awareness and favorably influences the attitudes and knowledge relating to the improvement of health on a personal or community basis.

Organized collections of computer records, standardized in format and content, that are stored in any of a variety of computer-readable modes. They are the basic sets of data from which computer-readable files are created. (from ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, 1983)

The field of information science concerned with the analysis and dissemination of data through the application of computers applied to the field of nursing.

A research and development program initiated by the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE to build knowledge sources for the purpose of aiding the development of systems that help health professionals retrieve and integrate biomedical information. The knowledge sources can be used to link disparate information systems to overcome retrieval problems caused by differences in terminology and the scattering of relevant information across many databases. The three knowledge sources are the Metathesaurus, the Semantic Network, and the Specialist Lexicon.

Patient involvement in the decision-making process in matters pertaining to health.

Acquiring information from a patient on past medical conditions and treatments.

Studies designed to assess the efficacy of programs. They may include the evaluation of cost-effectiveness, the extent to which objectives are met, or impact.

Delivery of health services via remote telecommunications. This includes interactive consultative and diagnostic services.

The use of DRUGS to treat a DISEASE or its symptoms. One example is the use of ANTINEOPLASTIC AGENTS to treat CANCER.

The relationships between symbols and their meanings.

Laboratory and other services provided to patients at the bedside. These include diagnostic and laboratory testing using automated information entry.

The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (HEALTH CARE COSTS) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers.

Statistical models which describe the relationship between a qualitative dependent variable (that is, one which can take only certain discrete values, such as the presence or absence of a disease) and an independent variable. A common application is in epidemiology for estimating an individual's risk (probability of a disease) as a function of a given risk factor.

Practice of a health profession by an individual, offering services on a person-to-person basis, as opposed to group or partnership practice.

Reductions in all or any portion of the costs of providing goods or services. Savings may be incurred by the provider or the consumer.

Management of public health organizations or agencies.

Federal program, created by Public Law 89-97, Title XVIII-Health Insurance for the Aged, a 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act, that provides health insurance benefits to persons over the age of 65 and others eligible for Social Security benefits. It consists of two separate but coordinated programs: hospital insurance (MEDICARE PART A) and supplementary medical insurance (MEDICARE PART B). (Hospital Administration Terminology, AHA, 2d ed and A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, US House of Representatives, 1976)

The interchange of goods or commodities, especially on a large scale, between different countries or between populations within the same country. It includes trade (the buying, selling, or exchanging of commodities, whether wholesale or retail) and business (the purchase and sale of goods to make a profit). (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed, p411, p2005 & p283)

Errors in prescribing, dispensing, or administering medication with the result that the patient fails to receive the correct drug or the indicated proper drug dosage.

Information systems, usually computer-assisted, designed to store, manipulate, and retrieve information for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling administrative activities associated with the provision and utilization of clinical pharmacy services.

Degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.