Dissimilarities in the Logical Modeling of Apparently Similar Concepts in SNOMED CT

Ankur Agrawal, Gai Elhanan, Michael Halper

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Concepts whose terms are of a similar word structure are expected to have similar logical representations. Anecdotal examples from SNOMED CT indicate that this may not always be the case. An investigation into the extent of inconsistent modeling in SNOMED CT hierarchies is carried out. A lexical methodology is used to identify sets of similar concepts. It is applied to one of the most attribute-rich hierarchies, Procedure, from which a random sample of 60 sets is derived. These sets are examined in regard to hierarchical, definitional, attribute, attribute/value, and role-group aspects. Thirty percent of the sample sets were found to have at least one type of modeling inconsistency. Their presence may interfere with the performance of terminology-driven applications. With the use of SNOMED expanding, such inconsistencies may eventually affect clinical care. Due to this, external auditing should be encouraged to identify such issues and complement IHTSDO's efforts.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)212-216
Number of pages5
JournalAMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium
Volume2010
StatePublished - 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Medicine

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