Journal article
Death Certification - Revisiting the Primary CDC and Name Literature
Academic forensic pathology, Vol.2(2), pp.120-125
06/2012
DOI: 10.23907/2012.018
Abstract
Death certification is performed by clinical physicians, physician medical examiners, and coroners. Some states also permit certification by nurses and physician assistants. The certifier enters specific disease and/or injury information on the death certificate to summarize the medical process(es) that culminated in death. These data condense a decedent's significant medical history and, in aggregate, present a year-to-year (or longer) view of disease and injury prevalence in the United States. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the umbrella organization that collects and processes all death certificate data. CDC publications are considered the primary guiding literature for completion of the medical portion of a death certificate; an expanded discussion of manner of death is provided by a National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) publication.
All certifiers should be familiar with the CDC death certification concepts; a subset of certifiers (medical examiners and coroners) will also have a working knowledge of the NAME death certification concepts. Inevitably, there will be incremental drift in an individual's practice over time. This work intends to succinctly restate the current rules of death certification as defined by the CDC and, to a lesser degree, as interpreted by NAME. Gaps are also identified. This work is not a comprehensive review of the many nuances or special circumstances of death certification.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Death Certification - Revisiting the Primary CDC and Name Literature
- Creators
- Marcus Nashelsky - University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine of Iowa City, Iowa and an Assistant Iowa State Medical Examiner
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Academic forensic pathology, Vol.2(2), pp.120-125
- DOI
- 10.23907/2012.018
- ISSN
- 1925-3621
- eISSN
- 1925-3621
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/2012
- Academic Unit
- Pathology; Epidemiology
- Record Identifier
- 9984047672602771
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