Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

VSAC Support Center

VSAC Support Center Home

VSAC 2.13.2 Release Notes

NLM released VSAC update version 2.13.2 on May 5, 2017


Browse Code Systems

You can now browse code systems and terminologies from any point in the VSAC browser interface. We have placed a Browse Code Systems button at the top of every VSAC page. Browse Code Systems requires a UMLS License login, but you no longer need authoring permissions if you just want to browse and discover the many standard biomedical and clinical terminologies hosted by VSAC.

New Representation of Published Value Set Automatic Updates

In the Search Value Sets public repository, VSAC will continue to provide all value set expansion versions that are published directly by authors. However, when source terminologies publish new code system versions, VSAC will represent only the latest automatic expansion (Expanded Code List) of each published value set using these updated code system versions. VSAC will no longer store previous automatic update expansions for published value sets.

Direct URLs Now Available for VSAC Downloadable Files

VSAC now supplies a direct URL, for every section in the VSAC Download tab, as well as for the individual download files within each section. This direct URL feature is useful if you want to embed links to downloadable files in your own web pages or in communications. When you select a section in the VSAC Download tab (CMS eCQM Value Sets, C-CDA Value Sets, or CDCREC Roll-up Codes) or when you select an individual file, your browser’s address field will change to the direct URL for that section or file.

Binding Parameter Specification

The Value Set Binding Parameter Specification (BPS) is a new file, generated by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) as a record of the value set binding and parameter information that defines the value set code lists specified by released CMS electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs). Measure implementers can use the BPS to track the parameters that define the value set code lists for each eCQM release. The BPS, located in the VSAC Downloads tab, contains the same information as the Data Element Catalog (DEC), as well as additional parameters, and it will replace the DEC in all subsequent releases. (login not required)

New Interface and Workflow for Authoring Value Sets

We modified the editing screens in the VSAC Authoring Tool so you can now edit your value set metadata without needing to create a new value set definition version; and, to support a user-controlled expansion and publishing interface so you can choose when and how you want your value sets expanded and published. We also modified the user interface to highlight author changes in the metadata history.

Direct Referenced Codes

You can now generate a REST API URL for single terminology codes so that measures and other implementations can reference a single terminology code without requiring a single code to be contained within a value set. This development helps measure developers and other implementations meet terminology copyright requirements to avoid derivative identifier creation of a value set OID for a single terminology code. Just go to the Browse Code Systems button on any VSAC page, search for your desired terminology code, copy the REST API URL for your code, and insert the URL in the appropriate place in the CMS Measure Authoring Tool. We also provide a Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based REST API URL.

More User Interface Tooltips

We added many tooltips throughout the VSAC application to help users understand searching, retrieving, authoring and publishing value sets in VSAC. Several of these new tooltips were inspired by user feedback, so please continue to let us know when anything is unclear in VSAC.

Code System Information for Value Sets

We added a code system column in the VSAC user interface for the grouping members section of Value Set Details in Search Value Sets. We moved the code system column to be adjacent to the value set name column in all user interface value set tables. We added code system information to the metadata section of Value Set Details in the Search Value Sets tab, and we added code system information to Value Set Info and Code List tabs of Excel downloads from the VSAC user interface. These changes were inspired by our users. Please contact us with any suggestions you have that would improve your user experience in VSAC.

VSAC Collaboration Tool Enhancements

We enabled the Data Lists feature in the VSAC Collaboration Tool. Users requested a way to programmatically track issues that their collaboration group needs to resolve before a value set can be published. Alfresco®, the VSAC Collaboration Tool platform, provides a Data Lists component that allows site members to create and manage lists of data relevant to their collaboration site.

Last Reviewed: May 9, 2017