Le Centre de Gestion des Terminologies de Santé a donc pour mission de se charger de cette maîtrise d’ouvrage opérationnelle des ressources sémantiques, mais aussi du guichet national de publication, ainsi que de l’accompagnement des utilisateurs. En France, le CGTS regroupe à date au sein de son catalogue 34 Terminologies couvrant un grand nombre de domaines médicaux.

A terminology is an ensemble of concepts defined by terms which belong to a specific language set. 

Terminologies are defined through a research process aimed at finding the most relevant terms used by a specific profession (or a field of expertise) in a particular context of use. 

Centralising and monitoring this vocabulary is essential to maintain a coherent use of the terms amongst eHealth experts and healthcare professionals.

A software publisher usually integrates several terminologies that cover standard usages: common names and codes, language names and codes, countries... 

Then they integrate “Base Terminologies” (drug terminologies, billing, administrative) and occupation-specific terminologies (Terminology of the living, cardiology terminology, geriatric terminologies, etc.).

The digital transition in France involves much more health data transfers. It is essential to set up a common language in this ecosystem, which currently lacks homogeneity at a local and international scale. The CGTS was created by the State to centralise the semantic resources for health professionals.

The State evaluates the following criteria: 

• Terminology conceived by one of the ANS’ Production Units
• Terminology conceived by a Production Unit with a convention
• Terminology in usage
• Terminology compatible with the ANS right imposition
• Reference terminology
• “Open” terminology
• Maturity of the Production Unit in charge of the terminology’s conception and maintenance
• Local terminology sets (“small terminologies”)
• Terminology conceived by a “fragile” Production Unit / Terminology conceived by a Production Unit without a distribution point