SNOMED CT Case for Investment - Final September 2021 - Flipbook - Page 40
FULL REPORT
S NOMED C T
The SNOMED CT
Viral Pneumonia Example
What is it?
SNOMED CT consists of coded concepts that are linked
and logically related (e.g. ‘is a’ statements, and
attribute relationships like ‘finding site’ and ‘causative
agent’). This feature allows the meaning of
information recorded in clinical information systems,
health data & analytics platforms and interoperability
solutions to be processed by a computer (e.g. you can
query the patient population for the number of cases
of viral pneumonia with finding site lung plus causative
agent virus).
Viral pneumonia is linked through a set of ‘is a’ relationships, that represent a polyhierarchy of sub-types. Viral pneumonia ‘is a’ infective pneumonia. Infective
pneumonia ‘is a’ infection, and similarly infective pneumonia ‘is a’ respiratory
disease. SNOMED CT also links concepts to the applicable part of the body, or a
finding site. For example, the viral pneumonia finding site is the lung. Finally
SNOMED CT links concepts to a causative agent. For example, the viral pneumonia
causative agent is a virus.