veterinary terminology services lab va-md regional college of veterinary medicine the animal names...
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Veterinary Terminology Services Lab Va-Md Regional College of Veterinary Medicine
The Animal Names Terminology Subset of SNOMED CT®
Suzanne L. Santamaria, DVM, MS Candidate
Identification of animals is vital
• Animal name foundation of medical record• Mixture of Linnaean and common:
– Linnaean terminology for scientific names• Class Aves, Bos taurus
– Common animal names used by caretakers• Bird, cattle, psittacine bird
• Ambiguity in animal names remains– Cattle = Bos taurus? Cattle = Beefalo? Cow?– Cattle = any animal of subfamily Bovinae that is commonly
domesticated, varies by country of origin and regulatory authority staring over the fence.
Identification of animals is vital
• Electronic recording & transmission increasing• Free text entries problematic• Incompatible standard lists problematic• Need common terminology
– between systems and users– integrates both Linnaean and common name– SNOMED-CT determined suitable
Extending SNOMED for veterinary use
• Veterinary content in SNOMED core is NOT sufficient for clinical or regulatory use
• SNOMED core updates slowly (q. 6 mo)• Veterinary content is low priority• Our Solution? – Extension• Our lab maintains a veterinary extension• Currently used by USDA, AAHA, & AAEP
Implementation in veterinary medicine:Subset mechanism
• ALL of SNOMED too large for any given use• Different groups prefer different phrases• Our Solution? – Subset• Update subset as often as desired• Our lab maintains numerous subsets
– USDA: Breeds, species, specimens, lab tests, etc. – AAHA, AAEP: Diagnostic terms
Animal names terminology is a starting point
• Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, horses, birds, aquatic animals, zoo animals, wildlife
• Classified by Linnaean ranking, common name, production use, sex, etc.
• Integrates with SNOMED core• Advantages of SNOMED• Subsets allow tailoring for groups• Concepts will be added and removed as needs
change
Example: Laying chicken
ConceptPolyhierarchy
Descriptions
Formal definitions
Text definition: Female chicken which produces egg for human food consumption
Descriptions enhance utilityDescription Description Type
Chicken laying egg for human food
Preferred (in SNOMED) description is displayed in SNOMED’s core and VTSL extension browsers.
Laying chicken Additional descriptions may be marked preferred for other uses (e.g., computer display at clinic)
Each concept has a set of relationships that “define” it
• ‘Is A’ relationships form a polyhierarchy– Laying chicken
• is a subtype of Gallus gallus AND• is a subtype of Food animal
• Other relationships give details– Laying chicken
• quality of female AND• role of producing eggs for human food
Example of text definitions
Dairy bull Adult male cattle which produce offspring that will be raised to produce milk
Dairy calf Young dairy cattle which are physically immature, typically from birth to weaning
Dry cow Adult female cattle that has produced milk at some point but is not currently producing milk
Replacement dairy calf Young dairy cattle that will enter milk production at maturity
Dairy cow Mature female dairy cattleDry dairy cow Adult female dairy cattle that has produced milk at
some point but is not currently producing milk
Demo
• VTSL SNOMED browser of animal names subset at http://vtsl.vetmed.vt.edu/
SNOMED’s power is in its data structure
• Concept• Synonym handling (descriptions)• Polyhierarchy• Relational/defining mechanism• Text definitions, translations• History mechanism• Extension• Subsets
SNOMED is a concept based terminology
• Concept = an idea which conveys a single, unambiguous, reproducible meaning.
• Concepts must have a definable meaning (non-vagueness)
• Concepts cannot have more than one meaning (non-ambiguity)
• Meanings correspond to no more than one concept (non-redundancy)
SNOMED contains unique and permanent concept identifiers
Concept identifier Fully Specified Name Concept Status
27161000009106 Chicken laying egg for human food (organism)
0
These things maintain the integrity of YOUR information
•Meaningless numeric identifier•Guaranteed unique within SNOMED and never reused
•Once created, the meaning of a concept does not change•Concepts can be retired but are never deleted/removed!
Introducing Animal Names subset
• Animal names: Linnaean and common• SNOMED’s structure facilitates information
organization• SNOMED adopted by others• Animal names subset specialized for CVM• Starting point for an animal names
terminology for CVM
Features of Animal Names subset• FDA CVM chooses:
– preferred names/phrases– what’s allowed– how terms are defined– what to distribute
• Subset grows gracefully over time• Subset will align with other ontologies used in biomedical and
clinical research• Subset can be divided:
– Approved animal in SPL– MUMS “species”– Adverse event reporting