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

Integration

Importanceincreases

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

Animal hierarchy adaptableSNOMED core/extension relationship

Optional subset relationship

Example: Animal and hierarchy below

Example: Dairy bull

Subset Preferred Description

SNOMED Preferred Description

Formal definitions

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

SNOMED adopted by many organizations

Animal names terminology used by some organizations

Demo

• VTSL SNOMED browser of animal names subset at http://vtsl.vetmed.vt.edu/

Questions?

Medical concept in SNOMED: Pneumonia due to Streptococcus

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