Would SNOMED CT benefit from realism-based ontology evolution?
Werner M Ceusters1, Kent A Spackman, Barry Smith
1Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences, University at Buffalo, NY, USA.
AMIA ... Annual Symposium Proceedings. AMIA Symposium
|August 13, 2008
Summary
Ensuring comparability across SNOMED CT versions requires a robust history mechanism. Current SNOMED CT history partially distinguishes real-world changes from evolving understanding, necessitating improvements for accurate biomedical information management.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Biomedical Terminology
- Information Science
Background:
- SNOMED CT is a critical biomedical reference terminology.
- Maintaining information comparability across SNOMED CT versions is essential.
- A history mechanism is included in new SNOMED CT releases to manage version changes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the adequacy of the SNOMED CT history mechanism.
- To evaluate how the mechanism handles the distinction between real-world entity changes and changes in understanding.
- To identify areas for improvement in SNOMED CT version comparability.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the SNOMED CT history mechanism's treatment of version changes.
- Evaluation of the distinction between changes in reality and changes in conceptual understanding.
- Identification of limitations in the current historical representation.
Main Results:
- The current SNOMED CT history mechanism only partially distinguishes between changes in real-world entities and changes in understanding.
- Limitations were identified in the explicit representation of class provenance.
- The separation of validity periods (SNOMED CT vs. reality) and the historical relationships table require enhancement.
Conclusions:
- The SNOMED CT history mechanism needs improvement to ensure accurate information comparability across versions.
- Recommendations include explicit provenance representation, separation of validity timelines, and redesigning historical relationship tables.
- Further study is required to develop clear enhancement proposals for better error recovery and data integrity.
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