Concepts Issues and Standards. Application of Controlled Medical Vocabularies: Optimizing the Structure of a Standardized Vocabulary-The SNOMED Model

摘要

The optimal data structure for medical concepts and for knowledge representation in medicine is being actively sought. The vocabulary required to support this effort must itself be structured. It is proposed that the minimal structural properties required for such a vocabulary are that it be SYSTEMATIC, MODULAR and it contain LINKAGES among its terms. The newest version of SNOMED has each of these properties and is offered as a candidate for concept representation in medicine that is needed to support a knowledge base. It approaches the goal of a uniform taxonomy of medical concepts stating the relations among terms for use in dissimilar situations or applications; as such it forms the basis for a target or artificial language for medicine.