This page contains the recommendations and final decisions for topics presented and discussed at the Editorial Advisory Group conference calls and face-to-face meetings. Where decisions have been modified over time, a brief history of the changes will be included.
| Topic | Dates of discussion | Recommendation | Action | Action Status | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laterality | 2015-10-27 |
The early decision was reviewed at a number of the following EAG conference calls and it was decided to use the current capabilities in the terminology to support lateralized content. Decision: The addition of pre-coordinated structures using the existing "LATERALITY" attribute was approved in light of the timeframe for support of nesting. |
| Implemented and ongoing | ||||||||
| Phyiscal object as Specimen substance | 2015-10-27 | Currently, Device specimen is a subtype of specimen; however not all physical objects that may be specimen substances may be devices. Recommendation to relax the range to include all physical objects. Tracker item:
| 2015-12-10: The suggested modeling change will be managed as part of the effort to create clarity re: use of substance vs product concept as attribute values to define concepts in other hierarchies (associated with the Drug - International Release Model and Content project). Details can be found on the following Confluence site: | Pending | ||||||||
New attributes to describe temporal context | 2015-10-27 | Discussion related to the need for representing temporal context beyond the existing AFTER relationship. Initial proposal was to add temporal values to the OCCURRENCE range. This was not accepted. Later discussion included the creation of new temporal attributes to distinguish between causality and temporality of combined disorders. |
TEMPORALLY RELATED TO BEFORE DURING Add AFTER as a subtype of TEMPORALLY RELATED TO
| Completed | ||||||||
| Application of ECE guidance retrospectively: maintenance of existing descriptions that may be ambiguous | 2015-10-27 | Presentation outlined existing issues with content that does not conform to proposed naming and modeling for combined disorders as recommended by ECE |
| In progress | ||||||||
| Unilateral Concepts | 2015-11-30 | No decision at the 2015-10-27 meeting. Additional input from implementers will be sought. 2015-11-30 discussion
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| In progress | ||||||||
| SNOMED CT Interface or Reference Terminology? | 2015-10-27 | As part of the SNOMED CT design, interface terminology is wholly supported by SNOMED CT and the may be represented as a dialect. The way one should implement an interface terminology is by implementing a dialect of SNOMED CT, not by doing an ongoing mapping that would never be semantically sound and that would cause a number of other problems. |
| Completed | ||||||||
| WAS-A relationships | 2015-11-30 | Add to the Editorial Guide guidance on retirement of WAS-A relationships. The WAS-A should be removed and the target concept should be linked to the next proximal higher concept in the hierarchy. |
| Pending batch update | ||||||||
| Need for description that matches FSN | 2016-01-22 | This is an "english-language" issue as it does not affect translations. While it has been the standard for SNOMED CT for over 10 years, recent changes to the FSN naming patterns has resulted in a large number of "non-user-friendly" FSNs, especially for combined disorders. The addition of descriptions with these terms was proposed as being of little value. The determination of when a description matching the FSN provided value would be left up to the editor. The authoring tool would still create one when a new concept was created, but the retention of that description would not be mandatory |
| Complete | ||||||||
| Use of URLs in concept definitions | 2016-01-22 | More evaluation is needed because it was about more than just URLs. There were a lot of issues around text definitions that need to be discussed. |
| Pending | ||||||||
| Use of Slashes in FSNs | 2016-02-29 | JCA said the final recommendation on use of slashes in FSNs was documented on the discussions page. |
| Complete | ||||||||
| Use of the Oxford comma in FSNs | 2016-04-19 | The Oxford comma is a comma added after the penultimate term in a list, e.g. For example "Disorder of head, neck, and shoulders". The purpose if its use is to make explicit the fact that the terms are part of a list. The editorial guide is silent about its use, but the example provided does not use the Oxford comma. There are currently 347 FSNs in SNOMED CT that use the Oxford comma. Most of these are terms obtained from other terminology, such as ICD and nursing. There are 2500 that contain comma delimited lists but do not use the Oxford comma. Should SNOMED CT be consistent in the use of this grammar mark or maintain fidelity to the original source of the terms that do use it? | Pending | |||||||||
| Evaluation of the use of DUE TO | 2016-04-19 | Based on work done by the ECE, there is a need to do a historical review of the use of the DUE TO relationship to ensure that the causality is supported by the current literature. |
| Pending | ||||||||
| Addition of "grouper" terms to hierarchies | 2016-04-19 | Acknowledged that for primitive hierarchies, grouper terms are necessary to navigate and organize the hierarchy. Decision: Primitive groupers may be added to top level hierarchies that d not have a supporting concept model. For hierarchies with a concept model the usefulness of fully defined groupers is limited to convenience groupings based on preferred classifications (e.g. disorder by site), Primitive intermediate groupers, while discouraged, are sometimes necessary when the concept model is not robust enough to support the full definition of a subset of terms. However, they add a substantial management burden. Decision: Fully defined intermediate groupers may be added if they provide demonstrable benefit to organizing and navigating the terminology. Intermediate primitive groupers will only be added on a case by case basis and by approval from the Head of Terminology or the Principle Terminologist. |
| Pending | ||||||||
| Use of Non-ASCII characters | 2016-04-19 | Use of non-ASCII characters, such as "em-dash" and "en-dash" in descriptions was discussed and general consensus was that these should be supported. |
| Pending | ||||||||
| Moving concepts between hierarchies without replacement | 2016-04-19 | Agreed that a simple editorial policy regarding conditions under which concepts could be moved without inactivation and replacement. Examples include Findings to Situation, Evaluation procedures to Observable entity, etc. |
| Pending | ||||||||
| Word order variants | 2016-04-19 | There is no general policy for acceptance of word order variants, although it is discussed in a number of areas of the Editorial Guide. A section under 7.4 General rules for naming conventions for specific hierarchies should be added to specify when word order variants are allowed. |
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| Lymphadenopathy | 2016-04-19 | Clinical interpretation/usage of terms vs. way they were represented in the terminology is causing inference issues. |
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| Modeling of "Complications and sequela" | 2017-03-30 2017-04-25 | A proposal for review and revision of the following types of disorders was discussed:
The initial document was taken through a number of revisions and approved by the Head of Terminology in September, 2017 |
| Complete In process | ||||||||
| Proposed policy: Allowance of Extensions to Modify Core Content | 2017-03-30 2017-04-25 | Extensive discussion on the interpretation of Clause 4.1 of the SNOMED CT® AFFILIATE LICENSE AGREEMENT. Based on discussions by the EAG members and input from extension managers, a substantial relaxation of the changes extensions may apply to the core, provided the changes are represented in RF2 within the extension moduleID. The essential requirement of no direct changes to the core content components was not changed |
| In process | ||||||||
| Policy on acceptance of "Patient-friendly terms" into the International release | 2017-03-30 | General agreement that patient-friendly terms are not universal and that the current "dialect " capabilities in SNOMED allow for extension of the core content to accommodate this type of content. |
| Complete | ||||||||
| Combined disorder modeling | 2016-10-25 to 2017 | Multiple reviews by the EAG as well as testing of patterns by the editorial staff has been performed. While there are still some difficulties in the consistent representation of combined disorders, due to their very nature, the patterns are being applied to existing content. |
| Complete |