View source for Mortality Medical Data System

{{Short description|US system for entry of death-related information}}
The '''Mortality Medical Data System''' ('''MMDS''') is used to automate the entry, classification, and retrieval of cause-of-death information reported on [[death certificate]]s throughout the [[United States]] and in many other countries.  The [[National Center for Health Statistics]] (NCHS) began the system's development in 1967.

The system has facilitated the standardization of mortality information within the United States, and [[#ACME|ACME]] has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the '''underlying cause of death''' from multiple conditions listed on a death certificate.{{sfn|Johansson|Westerling|2002|p=302}}

==System components==

The MMDS system consists of the following components, and is itself part of the [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm National Vital Statistics System].

===MICAR===

There are two '''Mortality Medical Indexing, Classification, and Retrieval''' components.
* SuperMICAR automates the MICAR data entry process. This program is designed as an enhancement of the earlier PC-MICAR Data Entry program. Super-MICAR is designed to automatically encode cause-of-death data into numeric entity reference numbers.
* MICAR200 automates the multiple cause coding rules and assigns [[ICD|''International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems'']] (ICD) codes to each numeric entity reference number.

===ACME===
 <!-- This section is linked from [[Acme]] -->
The '''Automated Classification of Medical Entities''' program automates the underlying cause-of-death coding rules. The input to ACME is the multiple cause-of-death codes ([[ICD]]) assigned to each entity (e.g., disease condition, accident, or injury) listed on cause-of-death certifications, preserving the location and order as reported by the certifier. ACME then applies the [[World Health Organization]] (WHO) rules to the [[ICD]] codes and selects an underlying cause of death.  ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the underlying cause of death.{{sfn|Johansson|Westerling|2002|p=302}}

===TRANSAX===

The '''TRANSlation of Axis''' program converts the ACME output data into fixed format and translates the data into a more desirable statistical form using the linkage provisions of the [[ICD]]. TRANSAX creates the data necessary for person-based tabulations by translating the axis of classification from an entity basis to a record basis.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-03-04 |title=NVSS - MMDS - About the Mortality Medical Data System |url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mmds/about_mmds.htm |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=www.cdc.gov |language=en-us}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Vital statistics (government records)|Vital statistics]]
* [[Nosology]]
* [[International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/dvs/about.htm About the Mortality Medical Data System]
* {{Citation | surname1=Johansson | given1=L. A. | surname2=Westerling | given2=R. | title=Comparing hospital discharge records with death certificates: Can the differences be explained? | journal=Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health |volume=56 | year=2002 | pages=301–308 | url= | doi=10.1136/jech.56.4.301| pmc=1732113 | pmid=11896139}}
* [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm U.S. National Vital Statistics System]

[[Category:Health software]]
[[Category:Nosology]]
[[Category:Population]]
[[Category:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]]