Standard classification
Health categories
The Observatory uses the WHO International Classification of Diseases, the global standard for all work on causes of mortality and morbidity, to harmonize and standardize the way it presents information from various sources.
The standard classification of health categories developed by the Observatory is used in two ways:
- To map the different nomenclatures used by the various sources to a standard disease/condition name.
- To classify health-related data (grants, trials or publications data) into the relevant health categories using automated data mining techniques.
To do so, the Observatory compiled a growing list of synonyms for each disease or health condition that are mapped to the standard classification of health categories and differentiated into three hierarchical levels (from less to more detailed categories). This list was compiled using various sources including:
- terminologies and lists of keywords and health categories used by the Observatory data sources,
- existing disease classification sources such as the Unified Medical Language Thesaurus (UMLS) and the WHO Global Health Estimates (GHE),
- other variations encountered in the Observatory’s analysis such as new synonyms, common abbreviations, spelling errors, language variations and lay names.
The standard classification of health categories developed by the Observatory is available for download below. In addition, the Observatory is making available an automated data mining tool that allows users to classify relevant text-based fields in their data, such as titles or abstracts, into the corresponding health category when this information is not readily available; something the Observatory started to implement in its data analysis (see examples of analysis under applications below). Users can do this simply by copying the appropriate text-based fields (such as titles or abstracts) into the indicated column in the “tool” file which will, through an integrated automated algorithm, assign a disease/condition name to each record (row) using the Observatory’s standard list of health categories and their synonyms. (Please consult the “ReadMe” sheet in the automated data mining tool file below for the steps to follow.)
Downloadable data files
Standard classification of health categories
xlsm, 513kb
Automated data mining tool for the standard classification of health categories
xlsm, 1274kb
Applications
Data visualizations
Health products in the pipeline from discovery to market launch for all diseases
Number of trial registrations by year, location, disease and phase of development (1999-2018)