Guided Notes

Terminologies & Ontologies in Depth

Concepts, descriptions and relationships; SNOMED CT hierarchies and attributes; LOINC's six axes; RxNorm concepts; mapping between systems and the UMLS.

Concept-based terminologies

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Modern terminologies are concept-based: • Concept — a unique meaning with a permanent ID (e.g. SNOMED CT 22298006 'Myocardial infarction'). • Descriptions — the words for it (synonyms: 'heart attack', 'MI'). • Relationships — how concepts connect ('is a' hierarchy and attribute relationships like 'finding site = heart structure'). Ontologies add formal logic so computers can reason ('every MI is a heart disease').

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