SNOMED CT hierarchies like subtype hierarchies (made up of 'is a' relationships) allow
for clinical information to be entered at a level of detail sufficient for the specific
clinical situation or possible at the given point in time.
For example, it is possible to specify a clinical finding at very high level of detail,
which is relevant and important for clinical treatment. The 'is a' relationships allow
for SNOMED CT hierarchies to be automatically traversed, and to enable terminological
reasoning of common sub- and supertypes. This means that Concepts can be automatically
aggregated into more general types, which is useful for management purposes and for
statistics.
Example:
Traversing the supertype hierarchies of the two concepts | actinomycotic pneumonia | and | congenital bacterial pneumonia | will show that both Concepts are types of | bacterial pneumonia |.
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