The use of SNOMED CT for representing concepts used in preoperative guidelines

The use of guidelines to improve quality of care depends on presenting them in a standard machine-interpretable form and using common terms in guidelines as well as in patient records. In this study, the use of SNOMED CT for representing concepts used in preoperative assessment guidelines was evaluated. Terms used in six of these guidelines were mapped to this terminology. Mappings were presented based on three scores: no match, partial match, and complete match. As eleven of the terms were repeatedly used in different guidelines, we analyzed the results based on "token" and "type" coverage. Of 133 extracted terms from guidelines, 107 terms should be covered by SNOMED CT of which 87% was completely represented by this terminology. Our study showed that SNOMED CT content should be extended before preoperative assessment guidelines can be completely automated.