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The FSN represents a unique, unambiguous description of a concept's meaning. The FSN is not intended to be displayed in clinical records, but is instead used to disambiguate the distinct meaning of each different concept. This is particularly useful when different concepts are referred to by the same commonly used word or phrase. Each concept can have only one FSN in each language or dialect.
A
represents a
that can be used to display or select a
. A concept may have several synonyms. This allows users of SNOMED CT to use the terms they prefer to refer to a specific clinical meaning. Concepts can have multiple synonyms, and the associated terms are not necessarily unique – thus two concepts can have the same synonym term. Interpretation of a synonymous term therefore depends on the concept identifier.
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In SNOMED CT every concept is specified as either fully defined or primitive.
A
is
fully-defined if its
| Gloss |
|---|
| t | defining characteristics |
|---|
|
are sufficient to distinguish its meaning from other similar concepts. One example is that the
|acute disease
| is
fully-defined by its two defining
. The first
is
|is a
||disease
| and the second
is
|clinical course
||sudden onset AND/OR short duration
|. Stating that this concept is
fully-defined means that any concept that
|is a
||disease
| and has a
|clinical course
| of
|sudden onset AND/OR short duration
| is a subtype of this concept (or the concept itself).
A
is
| Gloss |
|---|
| t | primitive |
|---|
| GlosTerm | primitive concept |
|---|
|
(not fully-defined) if its
| Gloss |
|---|
| t | defining characteristics |
|---|
|
are not sufficient to uniquely distinguish its meaning from other similar concepts. One example is that the
|disease
| and
|drug action
| share the same
| Gloss |
|---|
| t | defining characteristics |
|---|
|
: namely a
of type
|is a
| to the
|clinical finding
|. This is despite the fact that the
|disease
| and
|drug action
| represent different clinical ideas.
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