Associations between Component Files

The logical model of

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between the components in the release files is shown in 

Caption reference
CapRefId logical-relationships CapRefType Figure

. The component class represents columns present in all three component files. The individual classes (description, concept and relationship) only show the additional columns present in those files. The colored lines between descriptions and concepts and between relationships and concepts represent the link between the foreign keys (shown in bold) and the id of the concept. These provide the functional connections between components described in this document. The grey lines indicate additional links between columns that are populated with concept identifiers that provide enumerated values.

Caption label
CapId logical-relationships CapType Figure
Logical Relationships Between Component Files

A More Complete View of Release File Associations

Caption reference
CapRefId assoc-2019 CapRefType Figure

 provides an extended view of the associations between release files following changes complete in July 2019 release of SNOMED CT

Footnote Macro
The associations shown on the page are the results of changes that occured between July 2018 and July 2019. For documentation file associations before these changes please refer to Associations Between Release Files Prior to July 2018.

. These changes enable SNOMED CT to use enhanced 

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 features and resulted in a significant change to the way in which the 

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 of 

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t concept definitions

 are represented. However the changes but did not significantly affect the structure and associations between the main component files shown in 

Caption reference
CapRefId logical-relationships CapRefType Figure

Caption label
CapId assoc-2019 CapType Figure
Associations between SNOMED CT Release Files

Detailed Notes of Release File Associations

Each

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is represented by a row in the

Specref
RefType file t Concept

 and the concept is identified by the id column in that row. There can be more than one row with the same id but with different effectiveTime values, in which case each of these rows represents a version of that same concept. Thus each row represents a version of a clinical

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Each

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has two or more

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associated with it:

• At least one

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  and

• At least one

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Each

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is represented by a row in the 

Specref
RefType file t description file

 and is identified by the id column in that row. There can be more than one row with the same id but with different effectiveTime values, in which case each of these rows represents a version of that same description. Thus each row represents a version of a description. Each description applies to one concept to which it is linked by the conceptId. All versions of a description must relate to exactly the same identified concept (i.e. the conceptId must not change between versions).

Each

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from a source

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to a destination

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is represented by a row in the 

Specref
RefType file t relationship file

. There can be more than one row with the same id but with different effectiveTime values, in which case each of these rows represents a version of that same relationship. Thus each row represents a version of a relationship. The source, destination and type each relationship are identified respectively by the sourceId, destinationId and typeId columns. All versions of a relationship must have the same sourceId, destinationId and typeId.  The typeId refers to 

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that is also held within the

Specref
RefType file t concept file

. The only concepts that can be used as the relationship typeId are

Concept
t 116680003|is a| ShowFormat inline

or concepts that are subtypes of

Concept
t 410662002 |Concept model attribute|

.

The most basic form of

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is the 

Concept
t 116680003|is a| ShowFormat inline

relationship. This relationship states that one

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is a subtype of another

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. Each subtype concept is connected to its parent subtype(s) by relationships with the typeId

Concept
t 116680003|is a| ShowFormat inline

and this form the main SNOMED CT 

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In this

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a

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may have more than one parent

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. The root of the

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is 

Concept
t 138875005 |SNOMED CT Concept|

, which has a set of top level

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each forming its own

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with typeid values that are subtypes of 

Concept
t 410662002 |Concept model attribute| ShowFormat inline

are referred to as attribute relationship and contribute to the formal definition of the source concept.

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Display Footnotes Macro