Developing a Reference Terminology Model for Health Care Using an Object-Oriented Approach

Abstract

Objective: A reference terminology is essential to achieve semantic interoperability and enhance the quality of health care. Reference terminologies that have achieved common acceptance contain many concepts that clinicians would not want in healthcare, which preclude their practical use in documentation of patient information. To solve the problems, this document proposes a reference terminology model which contains concepts that physicians can use satisfactorily. Methods: We analyzed the structures of the UMLS and SNOMED CT. We also analyzed health care terms which had been collected by the Korea National Health Information Standard Committee. Based on the results of the analysis, we developed an object-oriented reference terminology model. And, we designed database schema with the model. Results: Eight components of the UMLS and six components of the SNOMED CT were analyzed. The collected terms had various properties and mapping vocabularies according to the characteristics of their respective domains. A reference terminology model was developed from a three-level view using UML. A database schema was developed using ERD. Conclusion: This study mainly focuses on reference terminology modeling. It is hoped that this reference terminology modeling helps the semantic interoperable exchange of clinical documents as the basis of common EMR. (Journal of Korean Society of Medical Informatics 13-2, 83-89, 2007)