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SNOMED CT translations are required for the implementation of the terminology in non-English speaking countries. The most important goal when translating is to ensure semantic equivalence between the source (International Release) and target language (National Releases). Therefore the principle of concept-based translation must be applied: Translations should never be literal (i.e. should not start from the term to be translated), but should always be based on the Fully Specified Name (FSN), which describes the meaning of the term in natural language. The next step is to look at the position of the concept in the ontology (i.e. the formal concept model) to investigate the formal definition of the concept.

An example is the translation of |Pericardium| to Norwegian (Figure 11). Medical dictionaries and encyclopedias list “perikard” and “hjertesekk” (literally “heart sac”) as synonyms and valid translations. For most practical uses, this would be true. However, the translator should keep in mind the fine granularity of the SNOMED CT concept hierarchy, in which the |Pericardium| is a superordinate concept that includes several subordinate concepts, including the |Pericardial sac|. Considering the concepts in the hierarchy, the proper translation of |Pericardium| is “perikard”, while “hjertesekk” is equivalent to |Pericardial sac|.

Figure 11 – Example of concept-based vs literal translation approach

For each target language national linguistic guidelines, including syntactic, morphological and orthographic rules, are developed to support this approach

SNOMED CT is a comprehensive terminology designed to meet the needs of a broad group of health care professionals in a range of settings. Translations should comply with the principles on which SNOMED CT was originally based:understandability, reproducibility and usefulness (URU). Therefore, the translation should adhere to the principles elaborated by Terminology Science for useable terms: terms should be transparent and reflect the essential characteristics of the designated concept; terms should satisfy the requirements of the users’ needs, i.e. they should be in accordance with clinical usage and they must be equally well understood by the different health professionals who use them. For each target language national linguistic guidelines, including syntactic, morphological and orthographic rules, are developed to support this approach.

4.1 Basic approach

Interdisciplinary cooperation in terminology work is crucial (Infoterm 2005). The ideal approach to the translation process should therefore be close collaboration between healthcare professionals, terminologists, linguists, and professional translators. This ensures conceptual equivalence between source and target terms and linguistic correctness. In contrast, literal term-based translations based on purely linguistic morphologic-syntactic analysis may provide terms that appear correct at first glance, but which do not correctly reflect the true meaning of the underlying concept. At the same time, the observance of linguistic, systematic and orthographic principles is absolutely necessary to ensure the consistency and practicability of the terminology as well as the predictability of the translations, which improves findability.

In practice, this means that a number of basic principles must be followed with regard to the morpho-syntactic structure of terms to ensure consistency, but in cases where there are serious conflicts with everyday clinical language, clinical use should have priority.

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These general requirements apply to all specialized knowledge fields, including medicine. When translating the clinical terminology SNOMED CT the equivalents in the target language should be carefully selected, especially with regard to the Fully Specified Names (FSNs) and the Preferred Terms (PTs) intended for clinical use.   The terminological rules for well-formed terms are less strict with regard to Acceptable Synonyms that may reflect clinical jargon (e.g. the language use of clinical care providers, specialists, nurses, physiotherapists, and others) and support search queries (e.g. “heart attack” as synonym for “myocardial infarction”).

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The correct use of commas and hyphens, slashes, brackets and colons, typographical characters and special characters as well as numerals in the International Edition is described in more detail in the Editorial Guide.Recommendations for language-specific usage must be clearly elaborated in the national guidelines for each language.

4.4.3 Translation templates

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