The OpenHIE Terminology Services Glossary is a list of terms and definitions pertaining to terminology management for the OpenHIE health information exchange. The objective of the Glossary is to facilitate communication among members of the community.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ancestor | Any Concept that is located anywhere “above” a designated Concept in a Hierarchy. Compare to Descendant. See also Generalization, Parent, and Superconcept. Example: In SNOMED CT, cardiovascular disease is an Ancestor of myocardial infarction. |
| Attribute | A general term used to describe any functional or descriptive data element associated with an element in a Terminology. |
| Authority | The organization responsible for the creation and/or maintenance of a Source Vocabulary. Example: The International Health Terminology Standards Development organization (IHTSDO) is the Authority responsible for SNOMED CT. |
| Child | Any Concept that is located immediately “below” a designated Concept in a Hierarchy. Compare to Parent. See also Generalization, Descendant and Subconcept. Example: In SNOMED CT, myocardial infarction is a Child of myocardial disease. |
| Classification | The Description Logic process by which Concepts are compared and structured into Hierarchies. |
| Code | An identifier by which a Concept is known, or named, usually for computer processing. A Concept will typically have only one Code. Example: the SNOMED CT Code for myocardial infarction is 22298006. |
| Code Set | A list of Terms and their related Codes (machine readable identifiers) that have gained acceptance in a healthcare domain [Gartner]. Usually has an associated Authority for creation and maintenance. See Vocabulary and Value Set. Example: The AMA’s CPT is a Code Set. |
| Code System | A managed collection of Concepts and their associated Attributes [HL7]. See also Code Set, Ontology, Terminology and Vocabulary. Example: ICD-9-CM, LOINC, SNOMED CT. |
| Coordination/Composition | The process of creating a Concept by combining other (more elemental) Concepts. Some terminologies,, e.g., SNOMED CT, may have specific rules under which coordination/composition may be applied. See also Pre-coordination and Post-coordination. |
| Concept | A unit of thought or meaning. A Concept represents the single meaning that encompasses the Terms used to express the meaning. Concepts are the base unit of representation in terminology Source Vocabularies. |
| Controlled Medical Vocabulary (CMV) | A standard Code Set and an associated Semantic Network that represents the information within a major domain of medicine. [Gartner] See Structured Terminology. |
| Descendant | Any Concept that is located anywhere “below” a designated Concept in a Hierarchy. Compare to Ancestor. See also Generalization, Child and Subconcept. Example: In SNOMED CT, myocardial infarction is a Descendant of cardiovascular disease. |
| Description Logic | A formal, mathematical knowledge representation language used to create descriptions within a Structured Terminology. Description Logic also provides inference mechanisms and algorithms for efficient Classification, retrieval, and comparisons of Concepts. |
| Exchange Terminology | A local organization is using a canonical terminology to map between interface and reference terminologies; working terminology used by an organization to exchange information; an Exchange Terminology may or may not be a Reference Terminology. |
| Extensional Definition | A methodology of specifying members of a Value Set (or other composite structure) by enumerating each of the structure’s members. See also Intensional Definition. Example: myocardial infarction + heart failure. |
| Generalization | A structural methodology by which concepts are arranged in hierarchies (trees) based on class or type characteristics (also known as “Is-A” relationships). Example: hepatitis is-a liver disease. |
| Hierarchy | A tree-like structure that groups Concepts according to Relationships. Hierarchies are found in Taxonomies, Terminologies, and Structured Terminologies. Hierarchies are generally thought of as “growing” down. Thus, Parents and Ancestors are typically spoken of as being located “above” their corresponding Children or Descendants. A Polyhierachy is a Hierarchy in which a Concept is allowed to have more than one Parent. SNOMED CT is a Polyhierarchy. |
| Hierarchical Relationship | A Relationship that serves as the basis for arranging Concepts into a Hierarchy. |
| Inheritance | The process by which attributes of one Concept are associated with that Concept’s subordinate (descendant/child) Concepts. |
| Intensional Definition | A methodology of specifying members of a Value Set (or other composite structure) by defining an algorithm which, when executed, yields the structure’s members. See also Extensional Definition. Example: all the Children of myocardial infarction. |
| Interface Terminology | An Interface Terminology is a terminology, or simply a set of Terms, used by a clinical application to describe a domain of knowledge. These are terms or phrases which users want to see in the application. AKA “source terminology”. These may include unique codes and descriptions, or just be terms. Interface terminologies can be used to present “surface” lexical forms to an end-user application such as an EHR, and may be the form exported in data exchange messages. An Interface Terminology may support “mappings” or relationships to Reference Terminologies. |
| Mapping | A type of Relationship that connects Concepts in two different Source Vocabularies. Usually designates some type of “equivalence” or computationally useful correspondence: a Mapping from an Interface Terminology to a Reference Terminology can facilitate Subsumption Queries for Decision Support and Analytics. Example: In SNOMED CT, Anemia maps to 285.9 – Anemia, unspecified in ICD-9-CM. |
| Modeler | A knowledge worker who participates in the creation and maintenance of a Terminology. |
| Ontology | An explicit, formal specification of Concepts and other entities within a domain, and the Relationships among them. Also known as Structured Terminology. |
| Parent | Any Concept that is located immediately “above” a designated Concept in a Hierarchy. Compare to Child. See Generalization, Ancestor and Superconcept. Example: myocardial disease is a Parent of myocardial infarction. |
| Partonomy | That Relationship (or Role) that designates one Concept is physically included in or “part-of” another Concept, e.g., the Mitral Value is-part-of the Heart. May also refer to the Hierarchy resulting from Partonomy Relationships. |
| Post-coordination | The creation of a new Concept outside of a Terminology by bringing together two or more existing Concepts from that Terminology. |
| Pre-coordination | The creation of a new Concept within a Terminology by bringing together two or more existing Concepts from that Terminology. |
| Reference Terminology | A Reference Terminology is a formal Terminology, usually created and maintained by a sanctioned Standards Development Organization (SDO), that can be used as the basis for Semantic Interoperability of information drawn from different data source systems. Each element in the Terminology usually includes a unique identifier (AKA Code) and a textual description (AKA Name). It may be concept-based (usually) or lexical-based. It may include Relationships between reference terms such as a Hierarchy. |
| Relationship | A named connection or correspondence (an Attribute) between Concepts or Terms. |
| Role | [IHTSDO ] An Attribute defines a formal Description Logic Relationship between two Concepts. Roles are used in Classification. Example: in SNOMED CT, the Role “Finding site” connects Myocardial infarction with Myocardium structure. |
| Root (Concept) | A Concept in a Source Vocabulary that has no Parent. |
| Semantic Interoperability | A level of data interoperability that supports comparability and understanding by the “meaning”, not just the format, of messages and data. |
| Semantic Network | A set of Concepts and a defined set of named Relationships designed to express the known or relevant interrelationships between Concepts in a domain of knowledge (or Structured Terminology). |
| Source Vocabulary | A set of Concepts all relating to a specific body of knowledge; informally, the name of the set of Concepts or the Authority for that set. Example: ICD-9-CM. |
| Structured Terminology | A Terminology based on well-defined, formal characteristics that consists of Concepts, Attributes, and a rich set of Relationships, aka an Ontology. Example: SNOMED CT. |
| Subconcept | A Child Concept |
| Superconcept | A Parent Concept |
| Subsumption | The relationship between a Superconcept and its Subconcepts. Typically, a Superconcept is said to subsume a Subconcept, while a Subconcept is said to have an “Is-A” relationship to its Superconcept(s). Subsumption is frequently used in decision support and analytics applications: acetaminophen is subsumed by (is an example of) an analgesic. |
| Subsumption Query | A Terminology query which tests or queries the Subsumption relationship between Concepts: Is acetaminophen an analgesic? What are the descendants of analgesic? |
| Synonym | A Term by which a Concept is known, or named, usually for people. A Concept will often have multiple Synonyms. Example: Synonyms of Myocardial infarction include “MI”, “heart attack”, and “infarction of the myocardium”. |
| Taxonomy | A Terminology that consists of Concepts placed in a Hierarchy of Generalization Relationships (aka, Generalization Hierarchy). Example: ICD-9-CM. |
| Term | A word or phrase used to refer to a Concept. Sometimes used as an alternative to Synonym. A Concept will often have multiple Terms associated with it, and a Term, for example “cold”, can be associated with multiple Concepts. Terms are called Descriptors in SNOMED CT. |
| Terminology | A Source Vocabulary that consists of a set of Concepts and Attributes. |
| Terminology Knowledgebase | A database of terminology information consisting of one or more Source Vocabularies in a consistent structure. |
| Terminology Services | A Terminology Service is a networked component of an HIE that centralizes terminology knowledge (e.g. interface and reference terminologies, mappings, etc.) for the HIE and provides terminology services to other HIE applications. |
| Value Set | A set of Concepts used to constrain permissible terminology content for a particular use [HL7]. Value Set Concepts may be drawn from multiple Code Systems. See Extensional Definition, Intensional Definition. Example: HL7’s Value Set for Gender |
| Vocabulary | A Source Vocabulary that consists of a set of (non-interrelated) Concepts or Terms. |