Setting up Terminology for Ottehr

Ottehr uses the National Library of Medicine UMLS API (opens in a new tab) to power ICD-10 code (opens in a new tab) search. This API can also be used to search across other medical terminologies such as CPT codes, SNOMED CT, LOINC, and RxNorm.

To set up the ICD-10 search feature, you will need to get an API key for the UMLS API and add it to the Ottehr environment variables.

Terminology Setup Guide

1. Get a National Library of Medicine API key
   1. Go to https://uts.nlm.nih.gov/uts/signup-login (opens in a new tab) and sign in.
   2. Review and accept the License Agreement.
   3. Fill out the License Request Form and click "Submit" to get the API key
2. Put the API key in environment variables / Zambda Secrets.
   • When running Ottehr locally,
     • Add the API key in the EHR zambda environment variable NLM_API_KEY in packages/ehr/zambdas/.env
   • When running Ottehr in a deployed environment,
     • Add the NLM_API_KEY to Zambda Secrets either using the Oystehr Developer Console Zambda Secrets page (opens in a new tab) or by updating the environment variable file and running a deployment.

Licensing

The UMLS API and each of the terminologies it can search on have their own licensing requirements. Please review the UMLS License Agreement (opens in a new tab) and the licensing agreements for any terminologies you plan to use.

• ICD-10 Licensing FAQ (opens in a new tab)
• CPT licensing FAQ (opens in a new tab)