The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has initiated an ongoing effort to establish a core library of harmonized pediatric terms, beginning with a focus on neonatal and infant examination concepts as part of a broader terminology framework. Continued efforts to harmonize pediatric terminology will support the acquisition, exchange, submission and archival of clinical research data, ultimately supporting the health and wellbeing of children.
In addition to the Pediatric Terminology, efforts began in 2011 to establish a set of terminology for the Neonatal Research Network Terminology (NRNT). The NRNT contains concepts associated with neonatal research contributed by four neonatal research networks: Vermont-Oxford Network (VON), Children's Hospital Neonatal Database (CHND), the Neonatal Research Network (NRN) and NICHD. In 2013, additional project areas were begun. In January, 2014, Pediatric Adverse Events Terminology and Perinatal Terminology were added.
NICHD terminology files are available for download from an NCI EVS ftp site (http://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/NICHD/) in two formats. A textual representation of the hierarchy of NICHD terms is provided as well; the terms in this hierarchy, which are restricted to NICHD terms only, do not necessarily have a direct parent-child relationship within the NCI Thesaurus (NCIt). The Changes file is published monthly and contains all changes that have been made to NICHD content in the current production version of the NCIt when compared to the most recently posted previous file. A letter preceded the data that has changed from the previous version; "A" precedes a New Term for that subset, "C" precedes any modification to a concept, "D" preceded a term that has been deleted.
- NICHD-Pediatric-Terminology_NCIt_Subsets.xls NICHD Pediatric Terminology Subsets in Microsoft Excel 2003
- NICHD-Pediatric-Terminology_NCIt_Subsets.txt NICHD Pediatric Terminology Subsets in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-Pediatric-Terminology_NCIt_Changes.txt NICHD Pediatric Terminology Changes in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-Pediatric-Terminology_NCIt_Version.txt NCI Thesaurus version in text
- NICHD-NRNT_NCIt_Subsets.xls NICHD NRNT Subsets in Microsoft Excel 2003
- NICHD-NRNT_NCIt_Subsets.txt NICHD NRNT Subsets in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-NRNT_NCIt_Changes.txt NICHD NRNT Changes in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-NRNT_NCIt_Version.txt NCI Thesaurus version in text
- NICHD-Pediatric_Adverse_Events_Terminology_NCIt_Subsets.xls NICHD Pediatric Adverse Events Terminology Subsets in Microsoft Excel 2003
- NICHD-Pediatric_Adverse_Events_Terminology_NCIt_Subsets.txt NICHD Pediatric Adverse Events Terminology Subsets in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-Pediatric_Adverse_Events_Terminology_NCIt_Changes.txt NICHD Pediatric Adverse Events Terminology Changes in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-Pediatric_Adverse_Events_Terminology_NCIt_Version.txt NCI Thesaurus version in text
- NICHD-Perinatal_Terminology_NCIt_Subsets.xls NICHD Perinatal Terminology Subsets in Microsoft Excel 2003
- NICHD-Perinatal_Terminology_NCIt_Subsets.txt NICHD Perinatal Terminology Subsets in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-Perinatal_Terminology_NCIt_Changes.txt NICHD Perinatal Terminology Changes in tab-delimited text
- NICHD-Perinatal_Terminology_NCIt_Version.txt NCI Thesaurus version in text
- NICHD_NCIt_Hierarchy.txt NICHD Hierarchy in text
Each file has the following column headers on the first row:
Spreadsheet Column Content Description Column A: NCIt Code A unique, machine readable string that begins with a "C" and is followed by a series of digits; each concept in the NCIt has one concept code. Column B: NCIt PT The Preferred Term, the most commonly used term for a particular concept. Each concept has one NCIt PT. Column C: NICHD (project name) PT The Preferred Term chosen by NICHD for a particular concept. Column D: NICHD (project name) SY A Synonym, a term chosen by NICHD and considered to possess the same meaning as the Preferred Term within a particular concept. Column E: NCIt Definition A statement of the meaning of a concept as defined by NCIt. Column F: NICHD Definition A statement of the meaning of the concept as defined by NICHD. Column G: NCIt Code of NICHD Parent The unique identifier assigned to the NICHD parent concept. Column H: NICHD Parent PT The Preferred Term of the concept chosen by NICHD to be the parent concept for purposes of a hierarchical representation. Column I: NCIt Code of NICHD Parent The unique identifier assigned to the second NICHD parent concept (if applicable). Column J: NICHD Parent PT The Preferred Term of the concept chosen by NICHD to be the second parent concept (if applicable) for purposes of a hierarchical representation. Column K: NCIt Code of NICHD Subset The unique identifier assigned to the NICHD subset concept. Column L: NICHD PT of NICHD Subset The Preferred Term chosen by NICHD to be assigned to the Name of the Subset Association. Concepts belonging to a particular list of terms are linked by a subset association.
NICHD terminology is bundled into subsets, identified by code and name, in columns J and K. These are the names of the subsets and definitions supplied by NICHD:
Subset Name Subset Description Prenatal and Pediatric Terminology All terms developed by NICHD and collaborators belong to this subset. NICHD Pediatric Terminology A core library of terms associated with pediatrics, representing information related to child health and development from pre-birth through 21 years of age; contributed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The NICHD Newborn Screening Terminology, the NICHD Childhood Immunization Terminology and the NICHD Neurological Development Terminology terms all belong to the NICHD Pediatric Terminology. NICHD Newborn Screening Terminology Terminology for concepts associated with neonatal and infant examination contributed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. NICHD Childhood Immunization Terminology Terminology for concepts associated with immunization in children (birth to 21 years of age) contributed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. NICHD Neurological Development Terminology Terminology for concepts associated with neurological development in children contributed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Neonatal Research Network Terminology Terminology for concepts associated with neonatal research contributed by four neonatal research networks: Vermont-Oxford Network (VON), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the Neonatal Research Network (NRN) and NICHD. Pediatric Adverse Events Terminology Terminology for concepts associated with adverse events occuring in the pediatric population. An adverse event can be any unfavorable and unintended sign (including an abnormal laboratory finding), symptom, or disease temporally associated with the medical management, whether or not related to the medical management. Perinatal Terminology Terminology for concepts associated with the reporting of events during the perinatal period.
Process: The database is reconciled the last Monday of every month; this is the database from which a production version is generated to correspond to the files posted on the ftp site. The files will be posted during the following two weeks. A listserv has been created that will contain monthly notifications when terminology has been updated. To subscribe to the listserv, sign up at https://list.nih.gov. The name of the listserv is evs-nichd-terms-l. Additional terms may be suggested at the Term Suggestion page; please indicate NICHD as the project.
Older files can be found on the following website (http://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/NICHD/Archive)
Help requests on these files should go to NCIThesaurus@mail.nih.gov