SNOMED CT Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is SNOMED CT?
A standardised, structured clinical vocabulary used by clinicians to record information in patient’s Electronic Patient Record (EPR) at the point of care.
How does SNOMED CT UK Edition differ from SNOMED International Edition?
The UK Edition contains UK-specific content within the ‘UK Clinical Extension’ and ‘UK Drug Extension’
What are the benefits of SNOMED CT for clinicians?
- Enables consistent, reliable and comprehensive representation of care information as an integral part of the electronic patient record
- Comprehensive coverage and greater depth of details and content for all clinical specialties and professionals
- Supports care pathway management and drug alerts
- Clinical information can be shared consistently across all health care settings
- Reduces the risk of misinterpretation of the record in different care settings
- It’s more dynamic, with frequent updates (twice a year)
What are the benefits of SNOMED CT?
- Enables the recording of consistent, reliable and comprehensive information in an Electronic Patient Record (EPR)
- Supports the direct care/management of the patient
- Supports the sharing of clinical information
- Reduces the risk of misinterpretation
- Supports patient pathway management
- Removes language barriers
- Improves legibility
What are the 3 components that represent SNOMED CT content?
- Concepts
- Descriptions
- Relationships
What are the two types of relationships in SNOMED CT called?
- IS-A
- Attribute
Describe a concept in SNOMED CT?
A clinical unit of thought/clinical meanings
Describe a ‘description’ in SNOMED CT?
A description names the concept in a human-readable way
Describe a ‘relationship’ in SNOMED CT?
Relationships link concepts to other concepts and provide more information about the concept.
What can an ‘Is-A’ relationship also be known as?
Parent/child relationship
What are the 3 types of descriptions in SNOMED CT?
- Fully specified name
- Perferred term
- Synonym
Describe the description ‘Fully Specified Name’ in SNOMED CT
It provides a unique clear description of the concept - avoids any ambiguity
Describe the description ‘Preferred term’ in SNOMED CT
The most appropriate clinical expression of a concept (the most common word/phrase used by clinicians to refer to a concept)
Describe the description ‘Synonyms’ in SNOMED CT
Alternative words or phrases for the same concept (allows the same concept to be expressed in different ways)
What are hierarchies in SNOMED CT?
Specific groups used to organise concepts.
What are the 5 main hierarchies that contain content in the scope of ICD-10 and OPCS-4 codes?
- Body structure
- Clinical finding
- Event
- Procedure
- Situation with explicit contect
How many hierarchies can be found in the UK Edition of SNOMED CT?
19
What is an ‘IS-A’ relationship?
IS-A relationships organise similar concepts into parent-child hierarchy.
The concepts become more granular as you move down the hierarchy.
What is an ‘Attribute’ relationship?
Relate two concepts together in a particular way.
Provide a logical definition of a concept.
They are qualifying characteristics that when applied to a concept, provide more detail and further clinical links.
Define cross mapping
Cross mapping is the one directional link from SNOMED CT to ICD-10 and OPCS-4 classifications.
What are the three map statuses that signal that a concept cannot be safely mapped to a classification code? Describe each.
- High level concept - the concept lacks sufficient detail to be mapped to a classification code
- Map source content cannot be classified with available data - the concept cannot be represented in the classifications/ is not in the scope of the classifications
- Eponym - the concept described is an eponym
Advantages of having an electronic patient record
- Can be accessed from many places
- Can be accessed by multiple users simultaneously
- Can be transferred quickly
- Legible
- Enhanced security
- Reduced storage and transportation costs
