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Coverage of oncology drug indication concepts and compositional semantics by SNOMED-CT
Steven H Brown1, Brent A Bauer, Dietland L Wahner-Roedler
1Department of Veterans Affairs, USA.
Objective:
To evaluate SNOMED-CT 's ability to represent simple and compositional concepts in FDA approved oncology drug indications.
Methods:
Oncology drug indications were decomposed into single and compositional concepts. SNOMED-CT's coverage of single concepts and the semantics needed to create compositional concepts were evaluated using automated and manual techniques.
Results:
SNOMED-CT covered 86.3% of single concepts present in oncology drug indications; 11.3% of indications were covered completely. Coverage was best for concepts describing diseases, anatomy, and patient characteristics. Medications accounted for 50.5% of missing concepts. Excluding drug names, 45.2% of indications were completely represented. SNOMED-CT's semantics completely represented 60.1% of compositional expressions.
Conclusions:
SNOMED-CT's overall coverage of the concepts in oncology drug indications was good. Improvements or alternatives are needed for medications and semantics.
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