FIG 2.

SNOMED CT modeling designed for use with SDC and common data element–based data analysis. The figure shows the SNOMED CT concept for Histologic type of primary malignant neoplasm of colon. The right portion of the figure shows the concept’s stated definition (ie, the definition provided by the concept author), which indicates that it is an observation of the histology type of a primary malignant neoplasm located in the colon made at a single point in time. The left portion of the figure, inside the grey rectangle, represents the classified concept definition (ie, the augmented definition produced from the SNOMED CT description logic classifier), which asserts that the observation is a subtype of observation of histology of primary malignant neoplasm and several other higher-level concepts. Furthermore, the concept is grouped, or aggregated, with all other types of observations of histologic types of primary malignancies regardless of organ, such as prostate and melanoma. This classified definition supports data queries such as “find any instance of adenocarcinoma in any organ” or “find all histologic types associated with primary colon tumors.” SDC, Structured Data Capture; SNOMED CT, Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms.