Illustrating terms in lists of nomenclature

Survival for children with cardiac disease has dramatically increased in the past four decades with the advent of improvements in diagnosis and treatment. In order to further decrease morbidity and mortality, optimization of outcomes must be vigorously pursued, and this optimization requires a common language when discussing and comparing results of the available diagnostic and therapeutic options. This common language exists and is named The International Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code (IPCCC). In order to make the IPCCC more universally understood, a ‘virtual visual encyclopedia’ has been created that links and illustrates the terms and definitions of the IPCCC with images of all types. The Archiving Working Group (AWG) of the International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (ISNPCHD) is an organization composed of members of the international pediatric cardiac medical and surgical community that collaborate to illustrate, with representative images of all types and formats, the pertinent aspects of cardiac diseases that affect all pediatric patients, using the codes and definitions of the IPCCC as the organizational structure. This chapter describes the process of linking illustrations and nomenclature in the effort to better understand congenital and acquired cardiac disease and improve outcomes.