Basic Principles for Content Inclusion in the Canadian or the SNOMED CT International Edition
The requested content must comply with some rules in order to be added in the terminology:
- Unambiguous: within the same hierarchy, the concept must represent a clinical idea without ambiguity. The same synonym may be used to represent different concepts. It will then be mandatory to refer to the FSN for selecting the proper term.
For example: fundus in the Body Structure hierarchy may refer to:
gastric fundus structure (body structure) or
structure of fundus uteri (body structure) or
structure of fundus of gallbladder (body structure) or
structure of fundus of eye (body structure). - Understandable: the content must reflect the characteristics it represents and be comprehensive.
- Acceptable: the content must represent terms that are used in the health care environment.
- Reproducible: the content follows a similar pattern for similar terms. This allows consistency.
- Useful: the content must support interoperability and be used by more than one user/organisation.
- National or international scope: In order to be a candidate, the content requested must have a national and/or international scope.