X-like

Description

Organisms named for similarities to other organisms (X-like)

There are a number of organisms in SNOMED and in the medical literature that are identified by their similarity to some OTHER organism.  We and the microbiology reporting group have been referring to these as “X-like.”  I’ve previously shared an analysis paper (posted as doc7156) and a spreadsheet (posted as doc7157) with this group.  I have recently posted an update to the spreadsheet.  The update to the spreadsheet divides my original list into two categories.  There are 27 SNOMED CT concepts that include an “X-like” description as a synonym but the concepts themselves do not appear to be in this category.  These are highlighted in a salmon color on the spreadsheet (X-like descriptions tab).   I would like to review these during the call and believe that we can set them aside.   There are 17 concepts that have “-like” in the fullyspecified name and these represent the fundamental problem we need to address.

I would like to make the following suggestions for your consideration:

1)     I suggest we set aside concepts that are not themselves “X-like.”   I don’t believe they are a problem to categorize or to model.

2)     I suggest that the X-like concepts must remain primitive because they cannot be defined with certainty but they can be placed in the hierarchy as primitive concepts.   The goal for hierarchy placement should be to find an appropriate supertype concept consistent with meanings that can be derived from existing literature.

3)     I suggest that adequate guidance can be written for editors to separate categories 1 and 2.

Objectives

Team

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