NDS-IS version 2.1

The latest version of the National Data Standards for Injury Surveillance (NDS-IS) is now available in print and on the web. Version 2.1 incorporates a few corrections and several changes to existing items, as well as a couple of new items: eg `Postcode' and `Triage' scores have been added to the dictionary. The direct web address is as follows:

http://www.nisu.flinders.edu.au/pubs/manuals/ndsis/ndsisman.html

Distributed with all printed copies of NDS-IS 2.1 has been a package of coding exercises. The rationale underlying the package is that `injury' may mean different things to different people, as may the various coding categories in the injury surveillance system. If information coded by different people is to make sense when it is combined, it is necessary that all coders should code the same sorts of case in the same way (ie there should be good inter-coder reliability).

It is also necessary that E-codes should be applied in the way that is intended by system designers. If not, a surveillance system will not measure what it seems to measure, and findings based on it may not be valid.

The package of coding exercises, which is based on one that was produced by Chris Gillam for the Western Australian Southern Injury Surveillance Project, is intended to help people who make use of the NDS-IS to gain a better appreciation of the intended meaning of `injury' for the purposes of this system, and to clarify the way in which the codes in Level 1 of the classification system should be applied.

The package is in two parts; a set of 20 sample cases for people to code, and an answer set with explanatory notes. The time taken to complete the exercise will depend on the user's level of coding experience. Staff experienced in using the NDS-IS classification will require 10 to 15 minutes.

The Research Centre for Injury Studies is interested in receiving feedback from people who complete the exercises. It is intended to add the package to our website soon.