Currently, diets are represented as both clinical findings and regime/therapy concepts, potentially resulting in duplication. For example:

• 138045004 |Vegan diet (finding)|
• 1255165006 |Vegan diet (regime/therapy)|

Information received from nutrition experts via a CRS request indicates that it is clinically useful to represent both dietary findings and dietary regimes or therapies. There is a relevant distinction between findings related to a patient’s usual diet (as reported by the patient) and an advised dietary regime, and either may be recorded.

However, based on previous discussions, the general perspective within the nutrition domain is that diets are best understood as regimes. Representing them within the clinical findings hierarchy may cause confusion.

A potential solution raised during the group meeting was to record patient-reported diets using the existing observable entity:

• 230125005 |Diet followed (observable entity)|

in combination with the appropriate dietary regime concept, for example:

• 230125005 |Diet followed (observable entity)|
→ 765021002 |Vegetarian diet (regime/therapy)|

Under this approach, the diet-related finding concepts could then be considered for inactivation.