High-level role groupers in the Substance hierarchy have been intended to support the organization of the hierarchy based on roles. An example of such a role grouper is 373265006 |Analgesic (substance)|. Substance role groupers have been an issue in SNOMED CT for many years. Role based groupers are associated with a particular purpose or outcome. A role does not belong to a substance per se but instead is associated with a manufactured product and its usage. Roles are a function of the way a product is formulated or presented.
In 2018 a solution was proposed to move the role groupers from the Substances hierarchy to the Products hierarchy--and specifically the “therapeutic roles” to the Medicinal Product hierarchy. While a small percentage (20%) of the role groupers have been created in the Medicinal product hierarchy, e.g. 53009005 |Medicinal product acting as analgesic agent (product)|, the majority of the role groupers remain in the Substances hierarchy at this time.
Please provide feedback on the proposal.
Send comments to (info@snomed.org ) by December 15th, 2023 with the heading attention of Nicki Ingram and Farzaneh Ashrafi.
Ian