ciel

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It is part of the OMOP collection.

The Columbia International eHealth Laboratory (CIEL) dictionary is a shared open concept dictionary that provides comprehensive terminology services to OpenMRS and other health information systems. Based at Columbia University's Department of Biomedical Informatics, CIEL contains over 55,000 medical concepts mapped to standardized code systems including ICD, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, and many others. CIEL supports open source health initiatives globally and has been recognized as both a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance and a Content Public Good by Digital Square.

Domains

clinical, health, biomedical, information technology

License

CC BY 4.0

Homepage

ciel

Repository

Unknown

Infores ID

Unknown

FAIRsharing ID

Unknown

Product Summary

Products

From this Resource
ID Name URL Category Format Description
ciel.ocl CIEL on OCL Online CIEL GraphicalInterface http Web interface for browsing CIEL conce...
ciel.dictionary CIEL Concept Dictionary CIEL Product mixed CIEL concept dictionary with over 55,...
ciel.covid19 CIEL COVID-19 Starter Set COVID-19-Starter-Set Product mixed COVID-19 concept starter set for rapi...
ciel.mpx CIEL Monkeypox Starter Set MPX Product mixed Monkeypox (mpox) concept starter set
From other Resources
ID Name URL Category Format Description
athena.mappings Athena Concept Mappings start MappingProduct csv Concept mappings between different te...
athena.vocabularies Athena Vocabulary Downloads list Product csv Downloadable standardized vocabulary ...

Details

CIEL - Columbia International eHealth Laboratory

Overview

The Columbia International eHealth Laboratory (CIEL) is based in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University in New York, USA. CIEL provides comprehensive terminology services to OpenMRS and other health information systems through its open concept dictionary.

Originally formed as a collaboration between Columbia’s DBMI, the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, and the Earth Institute, CIEL was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Under the direction of Andrew S. Kanter, MD MPH, CIEL initially helped develop and implement health information systems for the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) in ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Key Features

  • Comprehensive Coverage: Over 55,000 medical concepts
  • Standardized Mappings: Concepts mapped to ICD, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, and other standard terminologies
  • Monthly Updates: Regular releases with community-driven content additions
  • Open Source: Freely available for implementation in health information systems
  • Community Driven: Content direction guided by community participation and needs
  • Disease-Specific Collections: Curated starter sets for COVID-19, monkeypox, and other conditions

Recognition

  • Digital Public Good: Approved by the Digital Public Goods Alliance
  • Content Public Good: Recognized by Digital Square
  • Global Impact: Supports open source health initiatives worldwide through the OpenMRS community

Products

CIEL on OCL Online

Interactive web interface for browsing, searching, and accessing CIEL concepts through the Open Concept Lab platform.

CIEL Concept Dictionary

The complete dictionary source containing over 55,000 concepts with mappings to standard code systems, distributed monthly via Open Concept Lab.

COVID-19 Starter Set

Curated collection of COVID-19-related concepts for rapid implementation in health information systems responding to the pandemic.

Monkeypox Starter Set

Specialized concept collection for monkeypox (mpox) surveillance and clinical management.

Governance and Community

The CIEL concept dictionary is primarily edited by Dr. Andrew S. Kanter, with content creation and direction driven by community participation through:

  • Weekly OCL squad calls (Wednesdays)
  • Concept Management Office Hours (Thursdays)
  • Bi-weekly OCL-CIEL coordination meetings (alternate Fridays)
  • OpenMRS Talk forum
  • OCL chat platform

Update Frequency

CIEL is updated on a monthly basis and is primarily distributed via the Open Concept Lab. Release notes are posted on the OpenMRS Talk forum.

License and Terms of Use

The CIEL dictionary is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY 4.0). The dictionary contains lexical codes that may be subject to claims of ownership by third parties (IMO, IHTSDO, WHO, etc.), and no license is conveyed regarding those third party rights.

CIEL endeavors to exclude any terminology considered prejudicial or discriminatory, while including terminology in common medical use or required by governmental authorities for historical purposes.

Domains

  • Clinical
  • Health
  • Biomedical
  • Information Technology

Taxon Coverage

Human (NCBITaxon:9606)

Is this information incorrect or incomplete? Request an update.

Created: November 05, 2025 | Last modified: April 10, 2026