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. 2024 Aug 1;31(8):1631-1637.
doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocae143.

Promoting interoperability between SNOMED CT and ICD-11: lessons learned from the pilot project mapping between SNOMED CT and the ICD-11 Foundation

Kin Wah Fung  1 , Julia Xu  1 , Hazel Brear  2 , Alana Lane  3 , Maggie Lau  4 , Austen Wong  4 , Arabella D'Havé  5
Affiliations

Promoting interoperability between SNOMED CT and ICD-11: lessons learned from the pilot project mapping between SNOMED CT and the ICD-11 Foundation

Kin Wah Fung et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. .

Abstract

Objective: To explore the feasibility and challenges of mapping between SNOMED CT and the ICD-11 Foundation in both directions, SNOMED International and the World Health Organization conducted a pilot mapping project between September 2021 and August 2022.

Materials and methods: Phase 1 mapped ICD-11 Foundation entities from the endocrine diseases chapter, excluding malignant neoplasms, to SNOMED CT. In phase 2, SNOMED CT concepts equivalent to those covered by the ICD-11 entities in phase 1 were mapped to the ICD-11 Foundation. The goal was to identify equivalence between an ICD-11 Foundation entity and a SNOMED CT concept. Postcoordination was used for mapping to ICD-11. Each map was done twice independently, the results were compared, and discrepancies were reconciled.

Results: In phase 1, 59% of 637 ICD-11 Foundation entities had an exact match in SNOMED CT. In phase 2, 32% of 1893 SNOMED CT concepts had an exact match in the ICD-11 Foundation, and postcoordination added 15% of exact match. Challenges encountered included non-synonymous synonyms, mismatch in granularity, composite conditions, and residual categories.

Conclusion: This pilot project shed light on the tremendous amount of effort required to create a map between the 2 coding systems and uncovered some common challenges. Future collaborative work between SNOMED International and WHO will likely benefit from its findings. It is recommended that the 2 organizations should clarify goals and use cases of mapping, provide adequate resources, set up a road map, and reconsider their original proposal of incorporating SNOMED CT into the ICD-11 Foundation ontology.

Keywords: ICD-10; ICD-11; International Classification of Diseases; SNOMED CT; controlled medical vocabularies; medical terminologies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors do not have competing interests. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; National Health Services, England; Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canada; Hospital Authority, Hong Kong and Federal Agency for Occupational Risks, Belgium.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Non-synonymous “synonym” for the ICD-11 Foundation entity Thyrotoxicosis with diffuse goiter.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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