A hierarchical organization of terms or ideas that allows aggregation into categories.

Notes

A statistical classification
- Allows categories to be counted and compared, without double counting.
- Is a , which mean that each node in the is included in only one node in the level above. Although this avoids double counting, it means that arbitrary decisions are made when a node is naturally related to more than one parent.

Example

In a statistical classification such as , bacterial pneumonia is related to lung disorder or infectious disorder, but not to both.

SNOMED CT Glossary > Gliffy Diagram Source > Monohierarchy.png

Hierarchy Illustration - Statistical Monohierarchical Classification

In contrast, a such as SNOMED CT, enables bacterial pneumonia to be a subtype of both lung disorder and infectious disorder. This enables more inclusive analytics and avoids overlooking conditions that are in a different category from the one being analyzed.

SNOMED CT Glossary > Gliffy Diagram Source > Polyhierarchy.png

Hierarchy Illustration - Subtype Polyhierarchy

Related Links