Medical coding in clinical trials

Investigators situated at numerous sites in various countries record data collected in every clinical study on the data collecting tool Case report Form/Electronic Case Report Form. Since different investigators or medically competent specialists are from several sites or centers, it might be difficult to record medical terms consistently in multicentric clinical studies. These words are processed and medical coding is carried out by clinical data management team medical coders. To properly identify the reported medical words so they may be examined and studied, medical coding is done. In this article, the two most used medical dictionaries, WHO-DDE and MedDRA, are briefly discussed along with the procedure utilized for medical coding in clinical data management. It is anticipated that it will aid medical coders in their understanding of the clinical data management process. Additionally, a few typical difficulties that the medical coder encounters when completing medical coding are emphasized.