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A subset is a set of members all of which are members of another set (from set theory in mathematics), but generally, in clinical terminologies, it is a set of concepts or terms terms taken from a larger set of terms or concepts.
The purpose of using subsets is to facilitate the adoption or implementation of health terminologies. Clinical terminologies often contain thousands if not hundreds of thousands of terms. While SNOMED CT content has approximately a million concepts, LOINC contains nearly 97,000 terms. The use of terms or concepts subsets can help narrow down the content in terminology that is relevant for a specific use case. Subsets can contain just a few terms or may contain thousands of terms, depending on the purpose of the subsets.
At the time subsets are published they are created against the most current version of the standard. Canada Health Infoway maintains these subsets in partnership with Provincial, Territorial, and Federal e-Health agencies from across Canada working towards the successful implementation of Digital Health solutions.
Infoway plays an important role in reviewing and hosting subsets on the Terminology Gateway for jurisdictions and organizations to utilize.
In general, the goals of subset creation are twofold:
• Enables clinicians to report procedures and services by making it possible for them to select from a group of content most relevant to other specialties or services.
• Support the exchange of the information between Clinicians and institutions in a consistent manner
Types of Subsets
Subsets can be grouped into categories. The categories listed below are different ways of looking at subsets and are not mutually exclusive:
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